As the leader of all active ARCA
drivers in longevity, Praytor’s 2017 speech began by recognizing team owners
Wayne Hixson and James Hylton. The long time car owner’s drivers finished in the
top 10 but they did not get a spot on stage Saturday night.

Praytor also recognized Briggs
Cunningham & Kerry Sherrer for their 20 years of contributions to the ARCA
Series as team owners. It was announced last week Cunningham Motorsports had
been sold with the pair of long time owners retiring from the sport.

The Moose followed with a long list of
thank yous including his sister, Hayley for dating a guy in racing so he has a
new place for free parts.

A good part of this year’s speech was
thanks to his crew, especially Adam Lowe. Lowe moved to Mobile after graduating
UNOH last year. Lowe worked a full time job in Mobile while working full time
with the race team.

The ARCA Championship banquet closed
the season but the work for 2018 has not stopped in the DK-LOK Racing shop in
Mobile. The Daytona test is less than a month away and the team is now working
on a second car for Daytona.

Praytor Leads Active Drivers to Indy for Championship Banquet

Thomas
“Moose” Praytor started his ARCA career with his thumb out begging for a ride,
flash forward and the Mobile, Alabama driver leads all active drivers in
longevity heading in to this year’s banquet.

In 2017
Praytor started the season by taking over the ARCA Ironman Title, followed by
celebrating 100 career ARCA starts at Road America, then 100 consecutive starts
at Kentucky adding 1 more for good measure at the finale in Kansas for 101
starts in a row.

The young man
begging for a ride 6 years ago has become a fixture.

“It’s hard to
believe, Belmont and Venturini gave me a couple of opportunities to get their
cars in the race and we really didn’t have a plan. We bought an old car from
Belmont and decided to try and make Daytona. With Wayne Hixsons help that turned
into Daytona, Mobile and Talladega, well we’re still here.”

Praytor is
the only driver to have finished in the Championship top 10 in each of the last
5 seasons. While collecting top 10 Championship finishes Praytor has racked up
12,542 laps, more than double every other competitor in the top 10.

“The stats
are incredible, I still think of myself as a driver at Mobile International
Speedway. I think we’ve proved we belong, our next step in 2018 is to move our
race team into a top 10 weekly finisher.”

No time for
stats, 2018 is knocking on the door.

The ARCA
Championship Banquet is Saturday night in Indianapolis.

Talladega Test Positive for Praytor

With the 2017 season in the rear view
mirror Thomas ”Moose” Praytor and his Mobile Alabama based Max Force Race Team
were able to concentrate on preparing for the composite car test at Talladega.

The team faced 3 hurdles that had to
be climbed in 15 days, 1-it didn’t have a car, 2-it didn’t have a motor and 3-it
didn’t have a composite body.

Job 1 Car-Hayley Praytor’s boyfriend
better known as Mike Abrams ferried the team’s Superspeedway Chassis to
Mooresville and Billy Hess raised the halo and had it ready by Noon. One last
job for Max Force as he heads into retirement, thanks Billy!

Job 2 Motor-With the team’s one and
only Ilmor mileaged out they needed a motor. An ARCA team loaned the team one.
Nice to have friends.

Job 3 Body-On Monday October 1st
Tommy Praytor was in Mooresville picking up a used body from another ARCA team.
More friends.

With all the components in one place
the team had less than 7 days to assemble a Superspeedway car and body, a body
they had never seen before.

“We had a lot to do and our guys in
Mobile really worked their butts off to get us there. Adam (Lowe), Craig
Pickering and Brad Wallace worked some really long hours to make it happen,”
said Praytor.

The team should have loaded up for
Talladega on Monday afternoon but not satisfied with their progress, they kept
working. Midnight came and went with the morning light on the horizon the team
headed to Talladega at 4:30 AM.

“We normally have the longest trip to
the track, this week we had the shortest and we were the last team there, we
even had to get security to let us in.”

While the team had worked until early
in the morning, there was more work to do and they spent the bulk of Tuesday
finishing their new composite car.

The Ilmor guys went through the motor
making sure all of our plumbing and wiring was right and the Chevy was ready to
go on track.

At 4:00 PM the Moose climbed in to
make his first laps in the new car.

“It was really weird, I had been
inside the car working and we set the seat without the body on, so it was the
first time I had set in the seat with the body on. I couldn’t believe the room,
at 6”2” I have to squish down in the old car, the new car felt like I could have
a party inside there.”

Praytor made a few laps and brought
the new car back to the garage to make sure there were no issues or tire rubs.
“I was confident in our chassis but I really didn’t know what to expect with the
new body. Our new Chevy drove like a champ, really smooth and very stable.”

With time running out Praytor made
another 3 lap run placing him just outside the top 10 on the speed chart.

“Really a positive day for our race
team. So many people, so many moving parts all came together and our Chevy was
like a rock.” Day 1 in the books.

Instead of going on track to begin day
2 the team spent the morning in the tech line having the ARCA officials go over
the new DK-LOK Chevy.

“Tech was as important to us as on
track. We’ve been hanging bodies in our shop for years this was our first ARCA
composite body so we needed to make sure we were on the right track. Really
appreciate Gadget and Tony spending so much time with us in tech. We had a few
little issues but nothing too bad.”

With weather moving in to the area
there was time for the Moose to make one more 4 lap run putting him P6 in single
car runs. Rain capped Praytor’s on track laps for 2 days at 10.

“Really proud of our race team and the
car they put together in less than 7 days for Talladega. Lots of people involved
in getting us to Talladega and I can’t thank them enough for their help. We
still have so more work to do but we are really looking forward to Daytona.”

Next up, PRI Trade Show and ARCA
Series Championship Banquet, December 9th in Indianapolis.

Praytor’s Black Betty Joins Breast Cancer Walk

After its final ARCA outing Black
Betty clad in Randy Patrick Wears Pink Colors will be back in action this
Saturday in Downtown Mobile for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.

The DK-LOK/Randy Patrick Wears Pink
Ford will be at 205 Dauphin Street in front of “The Vault” until Noon on the
walk route. Mamma Moose, Julie Praytor and Sister Moose, Hayley Praytor will
represent Max Force Racing taking part in this year’s Walk.

The Walk begins at 8AM on Saturday and
winds its way through Downtown Mobile’s Entertainment District. Clubs along the
route are providing entertainment and necessary “fluids” for walkers.

The Walk begins and ends at Bienville
Square were the big throw down party will begin as walkers finish up. It’s not
too late to take part in this year Walk. Registration begins at 6:45 on Saturday
morning, Walk contact
Marlene Rathle,
SouthAlabamaStrides@cancer.org
(251) 414-1307.

This weekend’s walk will also be the final event of this year’s Real Men Wear
Pink campaign. It’s not too late to donate to Randy Patrick’s Effort:

The regular season finale in Kansas
usually has 2 types of competitors, I’m locked in so I’m taking it easy or I’m
trying to gains points so I’m going for broke.

Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK/Randy
Patrick Wears Pink Ford were locked in to 7th place in the
Championship just by starting the race. But the team took a totally different
approach to Friday night’s ARCA Series finale.

“We’ve been working on the handling of
ours cars all year and instead of sitting back our guys spent hours making
wholesale changes to our car. We never give up.”

Off the trailer the team was really
disappointed with the speed of the Ford and spotter Tab Boyd quickly put the
whip to the driver.

“Tab was on me from the moment I hit
the track he was almost as bad as my regular spotter. After a couple of rounds
my Dad came over to the window and said something like, “Hey you dumb ___ I
know you don’t listen to me but you got one of the best spotters in the business
on the roof you should listen to him!” I had to change a lot of my driving
style but it paid off”.

While the Moose was working inside the
car the team was working outside the car and the final lap of practice was his
fastest. Out for qualifying Praytor picked up a couple of more 10ths for the new
fastest lap of the day.

“A long 2 hour practice session really
gave us time to work on a lot of different areas of the car and it really paid
off. Of course the extra weight of the Randy Patrick Wears Pink stickers slowed
us down! (Laughing)”

After the wreck fest of the last few
races the season finale turned into one of the cleanest of the year with few
cautions and some great racing. The team and Praytor continued to work on Betty
every lap and every caution trying to send her out on a good note. Betty and the
Moose turned their fastest laps of the weekend in the closing stages of the
race. Praytor started the night 22nd and finished 20th.

“My guys kept working all night on
making us better and it paid off. A lot of people would have phoned the last
race in but we are always working on new ideas trying to improve our race team.
We think we hit on a few things that really brought our DK-LOK/Randy Patrick
Wears Pink Ford to life over the course of practice, qualifying and the race.
Cant thank Tab enough for coming over and helping us again. Congratulations to
Selfie on his first win and Austin and the entire Schrader bunch on the
Championship, they really had a great year. Gonna miss Black Betty next year but
we have a lot of cool stuff coming up.”

Last ARCA Outing for Black Betty at Kansas

Kansas 150 at Kentucky Speedway:
As the season comes to a close so will the ARCA life of Roush Chassis #461
better known as “Black Betty”. Thomas “Moose” Praytor took Betty for her first
spin in 2014 at the ARCA Mobile 200 and was the car he recorded his best career
ARCA finish in. “Betty and I have made a lot of miles together and with ARCA
changing the wheel base rule in 2018 this will be the last time I get to drive
her in an ARCA race,” said Praytor. Picture-“Black Betty” at the ARCA Mobile 200
in her first outing in 2014.

October is Breast Cancer awareness month and Praytor has joined forces with
Mobile Sportscaster Randy Patrick to help raise money for the American Cancer
Society’s “Real Men Wear Pink”. The Randy Patrick quarter panels have turned
into a drinking/fund raising game in Mobile. If you see “Randy Patrick” on FS2
broadcast you take a drink and make a donation. Hopefully by the end of the race
you will have had enough to drink to make a big donation! Use this link to
donate-

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized tne times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR, Winchester, Road
America, Kentucky, Salem & Elko. Betty is a 105” car and this is her last year
for ARCA competition, Praytor is attempting to finish the season with his
favorite car.

Kansas 150
is a hectic 2 day event starting off with inspection on Thursday. Friday kicks
off with a 2 hour practice session starting at 9:30, followed by General Tire
Pole qualifying at 2:30. The race to checkered flag, and the end of the season
will begin at 7:30 CDT. Live timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the
race will be on ARCAracing.com. The race will be televised live on Fox Sports 2.

What to look for this weekend:
With Kansas hosting the finale everyone will be fighting for their spot in the
Championship standings. In the middle of the Championship fighters will be young
guns only going for the win, it’s always wild!

Thomas “Moose” Praytor and
his Mobile based race team
have teamed up with long
time WKRG TV 5 Sports anchor
Randy Patrick for Real Men
Wear Pink at Kansas
Speedway.

Patrick and a group of 2
dozen male community leaders
have joined forces to
promote Breast Cancer
Awareness while raising
money for the American
Cancer society. The annual
contest pits some of
Mobile’s heaviest hitters
against each other as a
unique way for men to
support Women in their fight
against breast cancer.

“I think everyone knows
someone who has been touched
by cancer. We recently lost
one of our Channel 5 family
to breast cancer, it is just
a horrible disease,” said
Patrick. “The Praytors have
always given back to our
community and having them
part of my campaign, helping
promote the cause on
National TV is really cool.”

The Randy Patrick Wears Pink
car will race at Kansas
Speedway on October 20th
live on FS1 starting at
7:30.

“We lost my Grandmother to
Cancer, my Dad has had
cancer plus many more
friends and relatives have
had to deal with this
disease,” offered Praytor.
“Every year we’ve changed
our numbers to Pink at
Kansas to support Breast
Cancer Awareness, helping
Randy raise money for the
fight against Cancer is a
natural for us.”

Praytor, the Ironman of the
ARCA Series will be making
his 102nd
consecutive ARCA start at
Kansas Speedway closing out
his 5th
consecutive year in the top
10 of the ARCA Championship
standings.

After a short night with a bad motor
in Chicago, Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team were looking for a
rebound in the Bluegrass State of Kentucky.

With a fresh set of Ford horses from
Professional Engine in Mobile Black Betty was percolating off the trailer.

Praytor’s Ford Motor was strong but
his Ford Fusion was having a hard time turning.

“It’s always a constant battle getting
the balance in the car. Last week we were free (car turns too easy) and this
week we were just bound up (car won’t turn). We threw a lot at it and got it
better but we felt like we were still missing something.” Praytor timed in 22nd
for the Crosley Brands 150.

The start of the race was a solid
indicator of the night that was ahead for the 30 plus teams and drivers in
Sparta, Kentucky-lap 2 caution, lap 10 caution-you get the idea.

With each caution Praytor was called
to pit road when the field got the one to go signal to top off with Sunoco fuel
in case the race took on a long green flag run.

Once under green the DK-LOK Ford was
tight (not turning) in turns 3 and 4 and just about perfect in turns 1 and 2.

“Really frustrating we kept freeing
the car up to help it turn but when we got in traffic the back end would get
light around others cars and try and spin out.”

The race finally settled down and the
field made some laps with a caution just before the halfway mark.

“With the long green flag run we got a
lap down and while the rest of the field came down pit road we stayed out to get
our lap back. The extra fuel we had been packing in paid off.”

Back on the lead lap Praytor needed a
quick caution to get some fresh General Tires, 5 laps later the ARCA Ironman got
the caution he needed. The DK-LOK Ford came to pit road for 4 General Tires and
Sunoco fuel.

At some point in every race the front
runners settle down and log some laps, but that didn’t happen on Friday night.

Praytor spent the bulk of the back
half of the race dodging bullets and having fun on restarts.

“We didn’t have a car that could run
up front on a long run but I was having some fun on the restarts. We could catch
5 or 6 guys sleeping and pass them before the first turn. They would get wound
up and pass us back but it was a lot of fun.”

As the laps clicked off Praytor kept
improving positions one at a time. If the race had been crazy in the first 90
laps it was going to just plain stupid in the final 10.

“You could see some of the guys up
front getting antsy and they really went crazy 4 and 5 wide cars went
everywhere. Then we tried it again, same thing luckily we were laying back
keeping out of the mess.”

After a couple of tries the field
finally made it to 150 miles and Praytor rolled his DK-LOK Ford back to the
hauler in one piece and a 14th place finish.

“Nice rebound from last week, our new
motor was really strong, our guys had good stops and our pit strategy went our
way all night. We’ve got a few weeks off before the finale and after this last 6
weeks I think our whole team can use the time off.”

Fresh Horses for the Moose at Kentucky

The Crosley Brands 150 at Kentucky Speedway:
In a state that puts a premium on horsepower Thomas “Moose” Praytor will have a
fresh set of Ford Horses under the hood for Friday night. “Our guys at
Professional Engine in Mobile were waiting on us with a fresh motor when we got
back from Chicago. We were on the chassis dyno with it on Wednesday and it looks
like we may get a few more horses out of this one.” Horses will be in demand at
Kentucky, one of the fastest mile and a half’s on the tour. “Last year we ran a
special scheme for Chive Charities/GoodBookey at Kentucky, we had a lot of fun
with the Chive Fans, they are crazy!” In 2016 Praytor recorded a career best at
Kentucky and he’ll need to be on his game again Friday night to hold on to 7th
place in the Championship standings. Pictures Top-2016 Chive Charities/Goodbookey
Car, below Praytor on the chassis dyno testing new motor.

The Crosley Brands 150
is a busy 1 day event on Friday. An hour and half long practice session starts
at Noon CST, followed by Menards Pole Qualifying at 4:10 CST and the green flag
at 7:00 CST. Live timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the race will
be on ARCAracing.com. This race will be televised on Fox Sports 1 on Saturday at
7:00 pm,Channels in Mobile Comcast/Xfinity 49/241HD, Mediacom 52, Direct
TV 219, Dish 150, AT&T Uverse 652.

WATCH THE MAVTV BROADCAST OF SALEM ON SATURDAY NIGHT AT 9:00 CST.

ARCA CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING: 7th

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized seven times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR, Winchester,
Road America, Salem & Elko. Betty is a 105” car and this is her last year for
ARCA competition, Praytor is attempting to finish the season with his favorite
car.

What to look for this weekend:
Kentucky was repaved last year and again this year, General Tire is bringing a
special tire for Kentucky to handle the heat from new asphalt. Over 20 teams
tested on Wednesday and there will be a lot of data to absorb before Friday.

Over the last 5 seasons Chicagoland
Speedway has been feast or famine for Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his Mobile,
Alabama based DK-LOK Team, 2017 famine.

With Tab Boyd on the roof spotting the
DK-LOK Ford unloaded 5 tenths off of their 2016 speed and the team quickly went
to making changes.

“Having Tab on the roof and the Boss
on the ground we quickly started making gains on speed and handling. The bumps
down in turn 3 really upset our DK-LOK Ford, with Tabs help I started adjusting
my style and line it made a big difference on the bumps.”

As the hour and half practice moved
forward Praytor kept ticking off faster lap times until he was quicker than 2016
and still gaining.

“Practice was going great and going
down the back stretch the motor just went flat.”

The team went to work on the motor and
had it running for qualifying.

“I made a lap and the motor was just
done. We had done all we could and Darrell Basham came over and went to work on
it, dead. With 20 minutes to go before race time we had to go to the backup car
to just make the race and stay in the top 10 for the Championship.”

The team unloaded the backup car and
with help from a couple of other team was able to make the starting grid.

“I’m glad we had the backup but with
just 20 minutes to get it ready to race all we were able to do was get it ready
to make a few laps. Not what we were looking for but it was a big win for us. We
kept my start streak alive and we were able to make the start to keep up in the
points chase for this year’s Championship.”

No rest for the weary, Team DK-LOK
will be back at it on Friday at Kentucky Speedway.

ARCA Opens Playoffs at Chicagoland This Weekend

SCOTT 150 at Chicagolandspeedway:

The SCOTT 150
is a 1 day event with technical inspection, practice, General Tire Pole
Qualifying and the GreenFlag on Thursday at 7:00 CST. Live timing and scoring
for practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCAracing.com. Live TV
Coverage on Fox Sports 1. Channels in n Mobile Comcast/Xfinity 77, Mediacom 179,
Direct TV 618, Dish 397, AT&T Uverse 651.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized seven times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR, Winchester,
Road America, Salem & Elko. Betty is a 105” car and this is her last year for
ARCA competition, Praytor is attempting to finish the season with his favorite
car.

What to look for this weekend:
Chicagoland Speedway is wicked fast and will reach out and wreck competitors if
they let their guard down. Handling will take a premium over air this weekend
but air will still be part of the equation. How the cars handle the air or
better known as aero will always be present at Chicagoland. When cars get behind
each other they can become “aero tight” or won’t turn. You will also see cars
gain ground on the car in front of them and then be unable to pass because the
air off the car in front slows them down. When cars are side by side it can take
the air off the car on the inside and cause the car to spin.

After a solid effort in DuQuoin,
Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK team were looking forward to Throwback
weekend at the Eddie Gillstrap Motors 200 Fall Classic at Salem Speedway.

The Intimidator inspired Ford started
slow then picked up speed during practice. An aggressive qualifying set up
pushed the Moose back to 18th.

“We were trying for something big in
qualifying and it just didn’t work. We did learn some things we can use later
but they didn’t work Saturday night.”

With changes made during final
adjustments Praytor was on the move with the drop of the green flag.

“We unscrewed ourselves from
qualifying and our DK-LOK Ford was really good and we picked back up some spots
we gave up in qualifying.”

During the first half of the race
Praytor moved up into the top 15, using a little pit strategy the Moose moved
even closer to the top 10.

“We had a good battle all night with
Ed Pompa and Mike Basham. We snookered them on a pit stop putting them a lap
down to us and we were in good shape for the back half of the race.”

As the leaders set a torrid pace for
the next 50 laps Praytor’s brakes started to fade and by lap 150 there wasn’t
much to push.

“I’d hit the pedal and she wouldn’t
even think about stopping. I could pump them up going down the straightaway and
get enough to turn but each lap they got worse.”

Salem is tough enough, Salem without
brakes is just miserable. Praytor once on the move was now sliding back through
the field and giving up spots to folks he had already passed. The Moose would
bring home his DK-LOK Ford 16th.

“Just really disappointing, we had a
good car and it just slowly slipped away from us, lot of fun racing with Ed and
Mike. Appreciate the fans and Salem Speedway putting on the throwback weekend
it’s really cool seeing all the old cars.”

A really short week in Mobile and the
team will be headed back up I-65 dodging what’s left of Irma to get to
Chicagoland by Thursday.

Salem Throwback Style for Praytor Saturday Night

Eddie Gilstrap Motors Fall Classic 200 presented by Meadow View/Salem Crossing
at Salem Speedway:
The entire team is getting into this year’s Earnhardt Intimidator throwback
paint scheme. Along with the Moose driving the car, the team will wear Max Force
Racing Crew Uniforms from 2001. You can also expect to see Tommy return to his
ARCA Racing This Week attire for a special throwback interviews, Venturini,
Kimmel, Basham and Smith straight out of 2001! Nothing was hotter than beanie
babies in 2001 and the Moose will be giving away 100 of them during the driver
autograph session. “We’ve had a lot of fun with the throwback schemes, Mr.
Allison was at the race with us last year and this year’s Earnhardt scheme has a
lot of great memories for me. Salem, has been a good track for us, looking
forward to Saturday night!”

MEET THE MOOSE:
Thomas “Moose” Praytor will be meeting fans and signing autographs on the front
stretch at 5:45 EST.
THE TEAM’S THROW BACK CAR IS FROM 2001 AND PRAYTOR WILL HAVE 100 BEANIE BABIES
FOR THE KIDS!

INJURY REPORT: Tevin Bair tire specialist, tire
changer and over the wall coordinator will be out this weekend at Salem. “Tevin
is a gamer and wanted to be there this weekend but he’ll be going back
Pennsylvania to get checked out by the Doc’s after the race in DuQuoin. We
expect him back for Chicago.”

Eddie Gilstrap Motors Fall Classic 200is a two with Golf Tournament, hauler parade, unloading
and Fan Fest Event at the racetrack. Saturday it’s down to business, with
technical inspection, practice, General Tire Pole Qualifying with the Eddie Gilstrap Motors Fall Classickicking off at 6:15PM CST. Live timing and scoring for
practice, qualifying and the radio broadcast of the race will be on
ARCARacing.com. TV Broadcast of Salem race will air on
MAVTV on 9/23 at 9:00 CST,
LISTEN TO THE SALEM RACE ON ARCARACING.COM SATURDAY NIGHT AND WATCH THE RACE
FROM ROAD AMERICA ON MAVTV AT 9:00 CST.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized nine times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR, Winchester, Road
America, Springfield, DuQuoin & Elko.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND:
There is no other track like Salem on the tour and is a thrill ride best enjoyed
from the grandstands. The drivers bounce off the walls and each other at break
neck speeds with tire wear at a premium. Cars are up against the walls in turns
3 and 4 and funnel to one spot headed down the front stretch. The team that can
make their car get forward bite off the corners without burning up the tires is
going to have a good race.

Over the last few season Thomas
“Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK team have not just gotten use to the dirt but
enjoy playing in the dirt for the two ARCA Series Dirt starts.

A couple of weeks ago in Springfield
Praytor kept his legacy equipment on the lead lap finishing 13th and
looking forward to the General Tire Grabber 100 at DuQuoin.

Off the trailer the Moose was quick
and thinking about a lot higher finish than 13th. The team spent
practice building in some adjustability for the race.

“I’m far from a great dirt racer but I
can hold my own with a lot of the dirt guys and all of the asphalt guys. We made
some changes to our car after Springfield and our DK-LOK Ford was really good,”
offered Praytor. “I over drove turn one in qualifying and I think we started 18th.”

With the start of the race Praytor was
clicking off miles logging laps while the field worked to the fireworks at
around the end of the race.

Praytor spent most of the race
swapping spots with his dirt mentor Joe Cooksey in the #3. “I had a great race
going with Joe but I felt like he was just toying with me and when it got go
time, he would go!” (Picture above Praytor racing with the #3 of Joe Cooksey)

A caution at lap 37 let the team top
off with Sunoco and make some adjustments. Too soon to take the whip to his car
Praytor kept biding his time.

After a few spits and sputters with a
stop for some more fuel it looked like everyone was ready to get down to
business.

On the ensuing restart at lap 75 or so
Praytor took the riding crop to his DK-LOK machine and started closing in on the
#3 of Joe Cooksey and the top 10.

The Moose caught the veteran dirt
racer on lap 92 and started working for a way around him. On lap 93, the trio of
Cooksey, Kimmel and Praytor caught lapped traffic.

“These guys were side by side in the
middle of the racetrack. Joe slipped through and I didn’t think Kimmel and I
were ever gonna get by. Tangling with lapped traffic allowed the leaders to
close in on Praytor and one of the ended up punting the Moose down the front
stretch (In car camera should be good).

Praytor kept digging and on the
ensuing restart that ended up sending the race in to overtime, Praytor slipped
by more carnage and some more competitors to move from 15th to 11th.
Cooksey who didn’t tangle with the lap cars had a clear shot driving in to the
top ten and finished 6th.

“We had a really good car all day, the
dirt is a big equalizer for us running the legacy motor. Can’t help feel that
the lap cars cost an opportunity to finish right behind Cooksey. Not really sure
what the 2nd place guy was thinking when he turned me coming off of
turn 4. He hit me several times each harder than the one before until he finally
turned me. Those things have a way of coming back to haunt you. Really proud of
our guys and their effort today. It was a great points day for us to.”

A short week in Mobile before heading
to Salem Speedway for the
Eddie Gilstrap Motors Fall Classic 200 by Meadow View/Salem Crossing on Saturday
night. It’s throwback weekend for the ARCA teams and Praytor’s DK-LOK Ford will
carry the Earnhardt Intimidators colors.

Dirt, Left, Right, Repeat Dirt, DuQuoin Next for Moose

General Tire Grabber 100 at the DuQuoin State Fair:
Thomas “Moose” Praytor’s fondness of the dirt tracks started as a bad first date
5 years ago but has progressed to a love connection in 2017. “I was really lost
my first time on the mile dirt. Mr. Wayne (Hixson) is an old dirt racer and he
really helped me get going then Joe Cooksey got me going fast,” offered Praytor.
Since then I keep improving my slideways and I really have a good time. The dirt
has a way of equalizing the playing field for underfunded teams.”

General Tire Grabber 100
is a 1 day event with technical inspection, practice and General Tire Pole
Qualifying and the Green Flag on Monday, Labor Day, afternoon at 3:00 CST. Live
timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the race will be on
ARCAracing.com. MAVTV Live TV broadcast on American Sports Network or
americansportnet.com.

MEET THE MOOSE:
Thomas “Moose” Praytor will be meeting fans and signing autographs in front of
the Grandstands from 2:00-2:30 on race day.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized seven times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR, Winchester,
Road America & Elko.

What to look for this weekend:
Springfield was one of the roughest dirt races in the history of the Series at
Springfield. You figure a road course would help settle everyone down but with
the carnage at Road America just about everyone is on edge headed in to this
weekend. DuQuoin’s dirt is different than Springfield’s and the track races
differently. Like Springfield the driver that slides that best at the end of the
race will have a good day if they can keep up with an ever changing track
surface. Tires will not be critical unless the old dirt gets hard and has solid
rubber base on top.

Illinois State Fair Ground Track Specs:
1 mile dirt-flat
The green inner ring on the aerial photo looks like grass but its actually
water. Make a wrong step at the end of pit road and you’ll be in the lake!

Kerry Earnhardt
Intimidators Car Inspires Praytor’s Throwback

In 2001 Kerry
Earnhardt drove the Kannapolis Intimidators Chevrolet in the ARCA Series for
three events, winning at Michigan and Charlotte (Insert Michigan Win).

The special
Intimidators Paint Scheme was significant to Earnhardt as a salute to his Dad,
Dale, Sr., who passed away in February and the Kannapolis Intimidators, a minor
league baseball team, Dale Sr., had become a part owner of during the off
season.

For this year’s
Eddie Gilstrap Motors 200 Fall Classic at Salem Speedway Thomas “Moose” Praytor
will run the Earnhardt/Intimidator Throwback Paint Scheme as a salute to both
Earnhardts.

“Growing up I was
a big Dale, Sr. fan, he was the man. In the early 2000s my Dad was doing ARCA TV
for the Outdoor Channel and spotting for Dan Pardus. Mr. Kerry would always come
and hang out at Mr. Dan’s motorhome. I just thought that was the coolest thing.
Mr. Kerry was always nice to us kids, a lot of the drivers just blew us off. I
think he was more kid than grown up. Throwing back to Mr. Kerry’s winning car
and the Intimidators is really cool for me.”

The Kannapolis
Intimidators baseball hat Thomas is wearing was given to Thomas’s Dad in 2001 by
Earnhardt to wear on TV. The Intimidator diecast Thomas is holding has been in
his collection since it came out in 2001.

The Eddie Gilstrap Motors 200 Fall Classic
presented by Meadow View/Salem Crossing starts on Friday September 8th
with a Golf Tournament, Hauler Parade and Fan Fest at the track on Friday night.
Saturday it will be time to get down to business with practice, General Tire
Pole Qualifying and the green flag at 6:15CST.

Praytor’s 100th Start Nets Top 20 At Road America

Not known as a road course ringer,
Thomas “Moose” Praytor wasn’t exactly thrilled with Road America being start
100. As the rain fell on race day and the rain tires were being bolted on his
DK-LOK Ford something happened to the Ironman of the ARCA Series that hasn’t
happened in a long time, nervousness.

“Racing has become second nature and I
really don’t get nervous or anxious before we race but Sunday morning, staring
at a 4 mile road course, 10 Xfinity drivers and racing in the rain, well let’s
just say I was paying attention and talking to every road racer I could find,”
said Thomas.

Prior to Sunday the weekend had gone
as planned with the anticipation of reaching the 100 start milestone while
surviving the 4 miles of Road America. The early practice went so well Praytor
didn’t go out for the second.

“I told the guys the place is so big
and I’m so bad I could stay our here all day and I would still be trying new
stuff. We really wanted to conserve our equipment for the race and make all 100
miles.”

After the practices sessions on
Saturday, with the stream of Motors, transmissions and gears going up and down
pit road to replace the broken ones, conservation seemed like a good idea.

As the rain fell all the way up until
the decision time for rain tires or slicks the team opted for rain tires and it
never really rained again but the Moose was in good company the entire top 20
had changed.

With the drop of the green flag
Praytor and his treaded rain tires weren’t getting along like the he did with
the slicks on Saturday.

“It was just a completely different
feel I couldn’t get them to hook up at all and I may have done a little
agricultural racing back around turn 7. There was no TV back there so it’s my
word against there’s!” But radio did bust him.

The first batch of leaders came in
around lap 4 or 5 and Praytor was headed to pit road when rain started to fall
on the carousel. The team opted to stay out, driving on rain tires may be hard
but driving on slicks in the rain is impossible.

As quickly as it came the rain went
away and now Praytor was hung out to dry with the rain tires. Looking for a
caution that never came, the team brought him down pit road on lap 10 under
green for 4 tires and fuel, 2 laps later the caution came out. The move put
Praytor down a lap.

“It’s
pretty frustrating, just about every call we made on Sunday did not go our
way.”

With slicks on Praytor was picking
back up spots and was now faster than he had been in practice on Saturday.

A late caution sent the race in to
overtime and a single lap to decide the winner. The pushing and shoving was on
before the field even turned the sharp right hander to the front stretch and by
the time they reached turn 1 it was happening.

“We picked off the cars we could on
that last lap and it got us in the top 20, not too bad for the way everything
went.”

“The whole 100 start deal is still
just surreal. I appreciate all the ARCA officials taking time to congratulate
me. The other drivers, crew guys just everyone, it was really cool to have
people recognizes you for your accomplishments. Frank Kimmel was one of the
first guys to congratulate me, the guy has over 500 starts and a truck load of
wins and championships. We talked for a while it’s pretty awesome that a guy
like that considers you to be a driver and making a contribution.”

Back to the dirt on Labor Day!

Praytor Preps for 100th ARCA Start

On March
10th, 2012, Mobile, Alabama’s Thomas “Moose” Praytor climbed into
Andy Belmont’s #5 Ford sponsored by G-Force Racing Gear for the first ARCA
Mobile 200 and his first ARCA start. Six years later and 99 races down
Praytor’s 100th ARCA start is in his sites at Road America.

“Eight
years ago Thomas came up to our shop to work on cars when he wasn’t racing
late models in Mobile. He lived at the house worked his butt of every day,
in the shop, on the road goes home to race, back and forth. You could just
see the desire in this kid. I’ve enjoyed watching him continue to grow and
learn about our sport and as a person. I’ll always be proud he got his first
shot in one of our cars,” Andy Belmont.

“Mr. Andy
taught me so much about racing as a profession. Then he let me take one of
his cars to Mobile for the first ARCA Mobile 200. I remember we just made
the field, there were 42 cars at Mobile trying to get in the race and I was
the last one in 35th. Seven teams went home seems crazy now,” Thomas Praytor

After
working and making a few races with Belmont, Venturini asked Praytor to make
a couple of races in 2012. “Thomas started a few races for us 6 years ago.
I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him, despite his Dad and I’m looking
forward to being with him for 100 more races,” Bill Venturini.

“I’ll
never forget we were in Madison, Wisconsin and I took out one of Mr. Bills
dirt cars to get it in the show, that was my only job. I made a few laps in
practice and we were in the top 15. Next thing I know Mr. Bill is jacking up
my car and crawling under it by himself to make changes. My Dad was
spotting, Mr. Bill was my crew chief and crew, we were faster than a lot of
other high dollar teams. Really a fun day!”

While
Praytor was making hit and miss starts for other teams back in Mobile his
team was working on a deal for the first 3 races of the next season,
Daytona, Mobile and Talladega.

With
Belmont leaving the sport he made Praytor a sweet heart deal on a
superspeedway car. The team made a deal with Wayne Hixson to run the Hixson
number at Daytona and Talladega and the three race plan was coming together.

In
February of 2013 Praytor raced for Hixson at Daytona and it looked like
there would not be a Mobile because he didn’t have a car.

“After
Daytona, Mr. Wayne called and told me he had a car and we should come and
get it to get it ready for Mobile. I couldn’t believe it. We had a good run
at Mobile and we were 6th in the points. After Mobile Mr. Wayne
said, you know I got plenty of cars if you’ll get them going and keep them
going we can run the whole thing.”

For the
next two years Praytor moved in with Hixson in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee while
racing and preparing cars from Hixson’s shop.

“I can’t
say enough good about Thomas. He basically lived with us for the 2 years
while he was racing with us,” offered Hixson. “He still helps me anyway he
can and I would do anything in the world for him. He’s learned so much and
does such a great job with what he has to work with, people don’t understand
how good of a driver he is. I hope one day they can figure out how to get
him the new body and an Ilmor he would be tough to handle.”

Since
making that first start with Hixson in Daytona Praytor has not missed an
ARCA Race and is the current Ironman of the ARCA Series as he closes in on
his 100th start.

“As a
racer there are just way too many people to thank for helping you get where
you are but there is no doubt Wayne and Pam Hixson were my big break. They
took me in when we really didn’t have anything to offer. Mr. Wayne loves to
race and he has been racing for a long time. I learned so much about cars,
motors and all the nuts and bolts of this business I learned in Soddy Daisy.
I hope when I get to be Mr. Wayne’s age I can still get after it like he
does.”

After two
years under Hixon’s tutelage, Praytor moved back to Mobile where he and his
family struck out on their own. In their second year of competition the team
finished 5th in the Championship standings and keeps on rolling.

“Like so
many other young drivers working so hard just to race weekly at their local
track, Thomas Praytor took an opportunity to make his ARCA debut 6 years ago
with a very limited pathway forward. He’s forged that into his 100th
career start, and is an example of perseverance and making the very most of
resources and desire,” offered ARCA President, Ron Drager.

“100
starts is still hard to believe, 6 years ago I never thought I would get one
much less two but here we are. I get asked all the time what my next move is
and my answer is always the same. I’ve done more than I ever thought I would
get to do. I’ve raced at some of the coolest racetracks in the world with
some of the best drivers, Pocono, Kansas, Salem, Toledo, Michigan the list
just keeps going. I’ve dreamed about drafting at Daytona and at Talladega,
now I’m a veteran as comfortable there as Mobile International Speedway.”

“I get
asked how many more, how much longer? I don’t know I was just supposed to
make three races and now I’m at 100. I don’t see myself making 500 like
Frank Kimmel but he probably didn’t either in 1996 (1996 was when Kimmel hit
race 100).”

“I think
about all the great drivers I raced with in Mobile and Pensacola that never
had this opportunity and I wish they could. It’s been a real honor getting
to do this. I couldn’t have gotten here without my family, everybody
contributes.”

A special
100th logo and sticker has been created for this weekend’s race
at Road America. If you would like a 100th sticker email us your
address.

Moose Was Really Loose! Turns in Best Performance of 2017

After getting
beat up in Winchester, Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team returned to
the first dirt track that produced a top ten in 2016.

For a guy who had
never really raced on dirt until his first dirt ARCA start 5 years ago, the
Moose has taken to power sliding like a 5 year old with a big wheel, he ain’t
done till the tires melt.

Sunday Herr’s
Chase the Taste 100 at the Illinios State Fair was no different, literally.

Within a few laps
of unloading, the ARCA Ironman was extremely comfortable with his DK-LOK Ford
and the crew worked on building some adjustments for the 100 miles so they could
keep up with the ever changing dirt surface. Praytor would qualify 19th.

The first part of
the race was spotted with cautions allowing the team to make changes to get the
just right for the final half of the race. It should be mentioned here that with
Summer break from school, vacations, babies and work our crew for the weekend
consisted of 1 guy, Adam Lowe.

If we had a
change, Adam made it. Gas, Adam fueled the car and when we had to change tires,
Adam borrowed a Jackman from the 27, carried his own tire, took off the old tire
and put on a new one. All the while keeping Praytor on the lead lap!

Of course Adam
didn’t fly completely solo, we suited up Julie, Thomas’s Mom. Her job was to
hold the sign to stop the car, then go over the wall and clean the dirt off the
grill so the motor wouldn’t over heat.

The best part was
watching the high dollar over the wall crews getting beat by Adam and Julie.

By halfway,
Praytor was rumbling around the old horse track and was a full second faster
than his qualifying effort staying with the lead pack and on the lead lap.

Things were going
Praytor’s way and a massive pile up started in turn 3, cars wrecked in front of
him, beside him and behind him, while the Moose snaked his way through into the
clear.

“Stuff was going
everywhere and you really couldn’t see because of all the dust. I missed the 18,
thought I was going to hit the wall, the hole closed behind me and more cars
piled in, then I barely missed the 34 spinning, it was wild.”

After the wreck
Praytor started to lose touch with the lead back and radioed in his right rear
tire was gone. The hard sliding Alabamian had turned a treaded tire into a
slick, just like a big wheel.

With a new right
rear the Moose was loose again on the dirt and taking back spots lost on the
burnt up right rear. More cautions led to a 20 lap shootout with Praytor
remaining on the lead lap and taking home 13th, the best performance
of the 2017 season.

“Congratulations
to Grant Enfinger and Kelly Kovski, great win for them really glad to see Kelly
back at the track. Congratulating Grant in Victory Lane was like old times when
he was winning the Championship. We had a solid day, the dirt really helps bring
the Ilmors back to us. The last couple of years I’ve become a big fan of the
dirt. Headed back to the road course next week, not a fan yet.”

All season long
we have been sharing some great pics from the race track, thanks to Harlen
Hunter, Jay Alley and Rich Corbett. These guys do a heck of job, thanks!

Horses to Horsepower Springfield Dirt Next for Moose

Herr’s Potato Chip 100 at the ILLINOIS STATE FAIR:
Sunday marks the final day of the 2017 Illinois State Fair with a big double
header, the ARCA Series taking to the dirt followed by John Mellencamp. The
rumbling sound of horsepower will get the day started when 30, 700
horsepower ARCA cars start slinging dirt around the 1 mile horse track for
100 laps. “The fairs are some of the coolest place we go, the Ferris wheel
hanging over turn 1 reminds you you’re at Springfield. We’ve been getting
better on the dirt every year, had a couple of top 10s last year. We’ve
learned a lot about “Betty” this year and we are going to keep taking her to
all the tracks we can. Taking our best car last year paid off for us. If we
can just keep Dad out of the Moinkballs at the fair we’ll have a good day.”

MEET THE MOOSE: The Moose will be signing
autograph and meeting fans on the front stretch Sunday at 12:30 CST.

Herr’s Potato Chip 100
is a 1 day event with technical inspection, practice and General Tire Pole
Qualifying and the Green Flag on Sunday at 1:30 CST. Live timing and scoring
for practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCAracing.com live. The
race will be broadcast live on MAVTV.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to
his career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized six times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR, Winchester &
Elko.

What to look for this weekend:
Springfield and DuQuoin are the superspeedways of dirt and dirt racing fans
come from miles around to take in this event held in the middle of the
Illinois State Fair with tens of thousands of people in attendance. The
driver that slides the best at the end of the race will have a good day if
they can keep up with an ever changing track surface.

Since entering
the ARCA Series five years ago, Mobile, Alabama based Max Force Racing has
utilized University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) interns as over the wall crew.
The first few years the team was able to build from UNOH with little attention
but with a 5th place finish in the Championship standings in 2016
NASCAR teams have been taking and using crew members.

“For us, it is
the ultimately complement to our program that NASCAR teams think enough about
what we do and how we do it to take guys of our team and put them to work,” said
driver Thomas “Moose” Praytor.

Every returning
UNOH team member from 2016 has worked in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
or Xfinity Series Garage in 2017. Along with moonlighting in the NASCAR garage
at companion races some have already moved to full time over the wall status in
NASCAR.

“For our UNOH
guys, it’s what they are here for. For us we’re happy for them but it also means
we have to reload crew members and that can be tough,” offered Thomas.

No one knows
that better than crew chief, Adam Lowe. Lowe was the first UNOH student assigned
to Max Force Racing, has made every race with the team and now lives in Mobile
working in the shop every day.

Lowe helps
recruit new students and makes sure there are enough people to pit the car on
race day.

“It’s never
ending, we started with 10 people this season and now we have 4. This business
is hard, plus we have one of the most demanding owners in racing,” offered Lowe.

That owner is
Tommy Praytor. Praytor is part Drill Sergeant, part Bobby Knight and part Billy
Martin, that’s on a good day. One fan even said, “if you need to learn some new
cuss words just listen to Tommy on the radio.”.

“Everyone
thinks Tommy is hard to work for but it’s pretty simple you do what he says, his
way and you’re good. Deviate from that and hang on,” Lowe.

Third year UNOH
intern, tire specialist and over the wall tire changer Tevin Bair, who is still
with the team while moonlighting on companion weekends in the NASCAR garage,
offered the following; “Tommy will take the time to teach you anything you want
to know about in racing, especially how to do your assigned position, like
tires. I know what I’m supposed to be doing but when I hear where is the *&%$*
tire guy? I know I have screwed up. But I can tell you the butt chewings I’ve
gotten have saved me from making the same mistake and maybe losing my job in the
NASCAR garage.”

With 20 years
in the racing business Tommy Praytor has worked at almost every level of the
sport. NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, Trucks, ARCA and local short tracks.

Praytor is one
of the most “colorful” and vocal owners in the ARCA garage having spent more
time in the ARCA penalty box the last couple of years than any other owner in
the Series. His passion for racing, his race team and the Series comes through
in every conversation, sometimes a little too much.

While some may
take issue with his methods there a few that can deny the success the Mobile,
Alabama team is having.

“The fact is
I’m very hard on our UNOH kids. They all come in here 18, 19 20 years old
thinking they have it all figured out and they don’t know jack crap. Our number
one job is to keep them safe. Fact is this is a dangerous business, you make a
mistake people get hurt and you tear up equipment,” said Tommy.

“Once we get
them past not killing themselves we start working on what they know and don’t
know. I usually have a project I work with them on or ask one of the new guys to
do. I’ve actually had one of them ask me how to put a drill bit in a drill
before. Some of our guys start with no knowledge but are always learning and
then there are others that have it figured out and don’t listen, they don’t work
with us very long.”

The attrition
rate for UNOH students at Max Force Racing is extremely high but the success
rate for those that stick it out and work hard is even higher.

“Several years
ago Thomas came to my hotel room in Nashville and said;”

“Dad I’m having
to talk people off the cliff from quitting every week, you have to ease up on
them.”

“Do you always
want to have a crappy team or do you want to build a Championship team?”

“Championship
team.”

A few weeks
later Tommy let go all but 2 UNOH Interns.

A year later
Praytor finished 5th in the Championship standings with UNOH student
Adam Lowe as crew chief, an all UNOH crew and not one paid employee.

“We feel like we still
have a long way to go to be a Championship caliber team but everyone that works
with us understands where we are going and wants to be a part of it,” offered
Thomas. “Our team is a lot like our UNOH guys it’s not about what we are today
but what we want to become tomorrow.”

Obviously the NASCAR
garage has taken notice.

Battered & Bruised Praytor Soldiers Home 14th from Winchester

The World’s Fastest Half Mile proved
it’s title again this weekend with 6 ARCA competitors breaking the existing ARCA
track record at Winchester.

With a smoking hot field of cars,
Thomas “Moose” Praytor timed in his DK-LOK For in the 18th position
for the Winchester 200.

Picture: Praytor racing with race
winner Kyle Benjamin.

“We had a really good balance on our
DK-LOK Ford in practice but we just never really gained any speed. At a place
that eats tires we took balance and it probably hurt us qualifying but we were
thinking long term.”

With the drop of the green flag the
leaders set a torrid pace continuing to run under the old track record during
the race. It wasn’t until lap 50 in the field had a chance to breath and come to
pit road for tires and adjustments.

With all the leaders coming to pit
road, the call was made for Praytor to stay out and take the wave around getting
a lap back in the process. Plus trapping other cars a lap down the Moose was
competing for position with.

In order for the wave around to work
there needs to be a caution shortly thereafter so you can get the service you
should have gotten while taking the wave around. 60 laps later the next caution
flag flew and the Moose looked like a worm on a hook with now 110 lap tires
against fresh General Tire rubber.

“We finally got to pit road on the
second caution but our competitive day was really over other than trying to
complete all the laps. Our pick up crew from the Stock race the night before did
a great job and kept us on our lap changing all 4 General tires and Sunoco
fuel.”

Back under green Praytor was turning
laps times faster than his qualifying effort but there was no one left to race,
they had all left him on the long green flag run.

While Praytor wasn’t racing for
position it didn’t mean he wasn’t racing, he went from the slowest car on the
track to passing people back. Fresh tires will do that for you and they will
also get you in trouble.

With 50 laps to go the Moose was
racing with a wad of cars when the pack in front had trouble and Praytor ended
up clipping the right front of his DK-LOK Ford against the left rear of Mike
Basham.

“Everyone started to check up coming
off of turn 2 and I was looking for a place to go. The bottle neck off of turn 2
can eat up cars in a hurry and I was glad we got away with just a glancing
blow.”

At Winchester even a glancing blow
will take its toll and Praytor brought his DK-LOK Ford to pit road for some band
aids.

As the roughest, toughest track on
tour continued to eat race cars it allowed Praytor to salvage a 14th
place finish.

“Not much went our way today but it
could have really been so much worse. Happy to escape with a top 15 and I’m
looking forward to the Springfield dirt in two weeks.”

Winchester-Oldest Roughest Toughest Await Moose

Winchester 200 at WINCHESTER SPEEDWAY: At more
than 100 years old Winchester Speedway is not only the oldest but one of the
toughest racetracks on tour. Tough and rough fit for veterans like Thomas
“Moose” Praytor to have an opportunity to shine. “You’re almost always at speed
at Winchester, it’s tough to pass and the field stacks up while you try to get
by. The young guys making their first trip should be fun to race with.” After a
disappointing Pocono team DK-LOK is looking to make a rebound this weekend at
Winchester. “We had one of our first top 10 here, we’ve destroyed race cars here
and we’ve missed some really big wrecks here, the fans are in for a show.”

Picture: Pit stop at Winchester
Speedway in 2016.

MEET THE MOOSE: Meet the Moose at
Winchester Speedway Sunday August 6th on the front stretch from 11:00-Noon CST.

Winchester 200 is a two day event with
practice Saturday June 25th followed by General Tire Pole Qualifying.
Race day will be Sunday August 6th with the Green Flag at 1:00 p.m. CST.
The Winchester 200 will be broadcast tape delayed on MAVTV with live timing and
scoring with radio broadcast on arcaracing.com.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized six times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa, LOR & Elko.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Tires
go away quick! Tire management and the team that can make their car turn without
hitting the wall will have a good day.

After taking a whipping in the Spring
race at the Tricky Triangle, Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK team went
back to Mobile starting with a clean piece of paper for the second installment.
A lot of hard work in the shop and at the track yielded the same results another
whipping by the track that only has three turns.

Off the trailer the DK-LOK Ford was
decent but as rubber was laid down on the track by a big field of cars during
practice, the handling of the Ford kept getting worse.

“We made a good first lap, then we
were chasing it. After practice we changed almost everything trying to get our
DK-LOK Ford to turn.”

As can be seen by the picture above
there weren’t many parts of the car that didn’t get attention before qualifying.
New shocks, gear, springs, wedge and a change in rear steer all in the hour
between practice and in line time for qualifying.

“The guys worked their butts off
changing the car and when you make those kind of changes all at once it’s either
going to be really good or really bad. We solved the car not turning but we went
way too far!”

With a loose, loose race car Praytor
timed in 28th.

The team made as many changes as they
could post qualifying but there was still a ways to go. They needed a little
help with some early cautions to make changes to get where they needed to be.

As usual if you need cautions they
don’t come and the ModSpace 150 went all the way past the halfway point before
the first caution. Praytor brought the DK-LOK Ford to pit road for Sunoco Fuel
and changes.

With a much improved Ford Praytor was
picking off competitors on the track working his way back up to 22nd
at the checkered flag.

“Just really a demoralizing day. We
had a lot of time to work on this car to get it right and we just struggled.
Then our guys worked over time making changes for the race and we went too far.
A lot of effort went in to our DK-LOK Ford to have the results we had. The
Tricky Triangle won again but we’ll be back.”

Another short week in Mobile before
the team heads to Winchester Speedway.

Pocono Won Round 1 Praytor Trying to Take Round 2

ModSpace 150 at POCONO RACEWAY: After a rough outing
in the Spring Race at Pocono Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team are
looking for better this Friday. “It was our first outing with an Ilmore at a
down force track and we learned a lot but it was a long day. After Pocono we
reworked all of our race cars and it’s been paying dividends at every track
since. Looking forward to putting it all together Friday.” Praytor will be
making his 10th start at Pocono this weekend. Praytor normally
ranks first for starts at each track among active drivers but Pennsylvania
native and ARCA veteran Bobby Gerhardt will be making his 57th
ARCA Pocono start this weekend. “One of my first big racing moments came
with Mr. Bobby at Pocono. He got by me early in the race and we reeled him
back in, I got to him and then I had to try and figure out how to pass him.
I think 5 laps later I got him off of turn 3 going down the front stretch. I
was like hell yea, I just passed Bobby Gerhardt at Pocono!”

Back Home for Bair and Calabrese:
Homecoming this weekend at Pocono Raceway for crew members Tevin Bair and Angelo
Calabrese. Bair hails from Butler Pennsylvania just north of Pittsburgh.
Calabrese’s home is Hazelton, Pennsylvania less than an hour form the track.
This will be Calabrese last race for a while, wife Cheyenne, is expecting!

ModSpace 150
is a two day event with technical inspection on Thursday with practice, General
Tire Pole Qualifying on Friday with ModSpace 150 kicking off at 3:00PM CST. Live
timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the race will be on
ARCARacing.com. The race will be broadcast on FS1 beginning at 4:00 CST. SET
YOUR DVR

CAR:
Roush Chassis # RK306.
306 was created as a downforce car but became the teams workhorse in 2015
starting in 9 of 20 races. Last year it was raced at Pocono, Michigan and Iowa
by the Moose, this year it has already been to Pocono & Michigan.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Pocono
is one of the fastest and hardest tracks to get around on the tour. The second
race is shorter than the first and teams will use the same strategy as a road
course. Expect for teams to pit for fuel as soon as they get in their fuel
window between lap 20 and 30.

The weekend was slated to be a big one
for Thomas “Moose” Praytor but between the heat in Indianapolis and the heat
from former major leaguer Jon Lieber in Mobile it was smoking hot everywhere.

The Sioux Chief PowerPex 200 in
Indianapolis is the beginning of stock cars weekend in Indianapolis that
culminates with the running of the Brickyard 400. As a result teams bring their
best and the best teams show up. Such was the case for Friday night’s 30 car
field .

The best drivers with their best stuff
at a place where the driver has a lot of input, that’s the way it should be.

For Praytor and his DK-LOK team they
brought their best short track car, Black Betty and the Moose was right at home
within laps of coming off the trailer.

During practice the team went through
multiple changes ending up right where they started off, qualifying 20th.

With a good long run car Praytor’s
goal was to keep pace in the opening laps and try to hang on to the lead lap.

With Austin Cendric burning up the
track from the drop of the green flag, hanging on to the leaders proved tougher
than expected.

Praytor slowly progressed through the
field up to the 15th spot. The teams tire strategy put them on
opposite ends of the leaders having the Moose come down pit road after the
halfway point.

A simple tire change went wrong when a
pit gun failed during the stop costing the team a valuable lap. The lost lap
would doom the DK-LOK Ford to finish on a lap by itself rather than battling for
position.

As the laps wound down Praytor’s
machine worked back up to 17th and that’s all the team would have for
Friday night.

“It was a really hot day in Indy and
the sun took its toll on all of us. We had a really good DK-LOK Ford all day, we
had a little problem on pit road with a gun that hurt us. I tried to get by Mike
Basham in the last laps but he was moving pretty good and those guys had us
covered at the end of the race. Time to get back in the truck and head to Mobile
for Buddy Ball.”

The team checked in to Indy at 6:30AM
EST, the DK-LOK Hauler cleared the gate at Lucas Oil raceway just past midnight,
the Hauler pulled in to the Mobile shop at 3:30 CST, just in time for a shower
and make the opening pitch for Buddy Ball at 4:30.

After a long night in the DK-LOK Ford
followed by a long night in the hauler the Moose was dragging and still looking
for fluids at Hank Aaron Stadium.

While the fluids helped, the
competition including five former Alabama football players - Chris Edwards,
Willie Gaston, Vic Lockett, AJ McCarron and Corey McCarron, former Major League
Baseball pitcher and Mobile Sports Hall of Fame member Jon Lieber, former Daphne
High School and Vanderbilt football standout Torren McGaster had Praytor on his
toes.

“I was getting ragged pretty good from
the dugout are, I’m not sure if it my teammates or my Dad but I was getting a
lot of grief, so the pressure was on. Somehow I hit the ball every time I got up
and I didn’t pass out running the bases so it was a good day.”

Praytor’s Red Team took it on the chin
losing by a run in a close game.

The game was followed by a huge
autograph session and a silent auction featuring a 4 pack of tri-oval tower
tickets for the weekend to Talladega Super Speedway in the fall, with all the
proceeds going to West Side Buddy Ball.

“It was really a fun day. Can’t thank
Mr. Grant (Lynch) and the folks at Talladega enough for being part of today. It
means a lot to us to have Alabama folks supporting you in what you do. Big
weekend we’ll take Sunday morning off and be back in the shop Sunday night to
get ready for Pocono.”

Under the Lights for Praytor and Team DK-LOK at Indy

Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 at LUCAS OIL RACEWAY(Indianapolis):
Friday starts a busy weekend for Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team with
racing in Indianapolis on Friday night and Charity Softball back in Mobile on
Saturday afternoon. “We have a big weekend starting with Indy. Really cool
racing under the light at LOR. I can remember coming here with Rick Crawford, it
was always a good track for him and it has been for us too. I love a place where
the driver has a lot of input on his race car.” After the race on Friday night
Praytor will bring the hauler back to Mobile to take part in a fundraiser at the
Hank. “I haven’t touched a bat in 15 years but I’m still looking to take my old
teammate (AJ McCarron) deep Saturday afternoon.” Praytor, McCarron and Jon
Lieber join an all-star cast lineup to raise money for Buddy Ball.

Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 is a one day event with
technical inspection, practice, General Tire Pole Qualifying followed by the
Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 green flag at 8:00 CST. Live timing and scoring for
practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCARacing.com.
The race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized five times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison, Iowa & Elko.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:
There is a lot of driver input at LOR much like Iowa. Lots of different ways to
get around and the cars really launch off of turn 4 using the high groove.
Handling will be at a premium this weekend.

Lucas Oil Raceway: 0.686 Miles of Asphalt,
with 12 degree banking.

Praytor Joins McCarron & Lieber for Buddy Ball Fundraiser

Thomas
“Moose” Praytor will team up with A.J. McCarron again along with former Cubs
Major League pitcher Jon Lieber and host of others for a celebrity Softball game
at Hank Aaron Stadium on July 22nd to Benefit Buddy Ball.

Buddy Ball is a League for special needs players from ages 5-21. Everyone gets
to play and has a buddy on the field with them cheering them on. The League is
designed for the players but the “Buddies” tend to be rewarded as much as the
players.

Next weekend will be a busy one for the Mobile, Alabama driver. Friday night
Praytor will be in Indianapolis competing in the Sioux Chief PowerPEX 200 before
racing back to Mobile for the Buddy Ball Benefit at the Hank.

“We are going to have to hustle to get back from Indy for the Game but I’m
really looking forward to it. Some of the kids will be there and it’s all about
the kids they really get you going,” said Praytor. “I don’t know if I’m playing
with AJ (McCarron) or against him but I hope he pitches so I can take him deep.
Now Lieber is another story, I hope we are on the same team!”

AJ MCCarron is a 3 time BCS National Championship Quarterback currently with the
Cincinnati Bengals and Jon Leiber is a former University of South Alabama player
who spent 14 years in the big leagues with Cubs and Yankees.

The fundraising softball game, autograph session and silent auction begins at
4:30 and will be followed by a BayBears regular home game. The BayBears will
take on the Chattanooga Lookouts at 7:05. It’s Cap Night at the BayBears and the
first 1,000 fans will get a free BayBears cap. Tickets are $10 with $5 going to
Buddy Ball and includes both games! To get tickets in advance call 251-605-5939
or rochellejdn@aol.com.

No Juice for
the Moose-Rebounds to 18th

Over the last few races the team has
been making some aggressive changes to their DK-LOK Ford paying big dividends on
the race track. So if it’s working keep going!

After the 1,200 mile commute from
Mobile to Newton, Iowa, the Moose developed a stomach bug that drained him
Friday night and in to Saturday morning.

“I’ve been sick before but nothing
like what hit me Friday. It was pretty bad, the guys got me some medicine and
some Gatorade to slow it down. I stayed late at the hotel while the guys got us
unloaded and through tech.”

With a few minutes to spare a little
whiter and lighter Praytor showed up for practice.

First laps on the track proved, a
little of a good thing is a good idea but a lot maybe not so much.

“We were really loose on the track
and had to go to work making some major changes. The guys did a great job and we
picked up speed with each run.”

With a much improved DK-LOK Ford
Praytor timed into the 18th starting spot for the Friends With Benefits 150.

The start of the race was an
indication of how the night would go.

“The green flag flew and our DK-LOK
Ford just sputtered. It took me a few seconds to realize we had a bad ignition
box. I swapped the box and Betty came back to life.”

The bad ignition box cost Praytor a
straight away to the field, rolling again he was making up ground.

As fast as the DK-LOK Ford could
catch them Praytor was on the move and in the first 40 laps had worked his way
up to 11th when the caution flag flew.

“Everything was fine until it
wasn’t. We had a fast car and were under caution and it just quit, dead.”

The DK-LOK Ford rolled to a stop on
the back straight away requiring a push back to pit road.

Back on pit road the crew quickly
changed out the batteries. Even with the quick change it cost the team 5 laps on
the race track.

“Saturday night is a classic example
of how our race team has improved with Adam (Lowe) in the shop. Adam was
responsible for getting the extra batteries charged and set up with quick
disconnect cables. Something we wouldn’t have had time to do in the past.”

The change only cost the team 5 laps
and the Moose went back on track with a lot of steam.

A fast car got faster and Praytor
started unlapping himself. The DK-LOK Ford turned its fastest lap of the night
on lap 110.

When the checkered flag flew Praytor
had worked his way back from the tail end of the 30 car field to finish 18th.

“We ended up with a really nice car
after a lot of hard work. Our guys worked hard all day and kept overcoming
obstacles during the race. As crappy as the day started we really ended up with
a solid night. Would have loved to have had a few more laps to catch some more
cars.”

Team has a week off before the Sioux
Chief PowerPEX 200 at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

Praytor Headed to the Heartland of America

Fans With Benefits 150 at IOWA SPEEDWAY: Coming
off a solid effort in the Montgomery Ward 200 at Madison Speedway, Thomas
“Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK team have a little extra pep in their step
heading to Iowa. “A good run and a week off was just what the Doctor ordered for
our race team. 10,000 miles in 5 weeks had taken its toll on everybody,” said
Praytor. “We had our Iowa car ready to go Wednesday of last week and started
working forward on our Pocono car. It’s the first time we’ve been anywhere close
to ahead all season.” Over the years Iowa Speedway has been a tough nut to crack
for the Mobile, Alabama driver. “I’ve been a bottom feeder forever and it’s
taken me some time to get up the race track. We found a lot of speed and grip up
top so we’ll be moving up pretty quick on Saturday night.”

Picture:
The ultimate fans with benefits from last year’s race in Iowa. “These kids were
white knuckle hanging on the fence outside of the garage. We snuck them in the
garage to sit in the car, take some pics and some Gatorade. They were a lot of
fun and what its all about!”

The Fans with Benefits 150 is a one day event with
technical inspection, practice, General Tire Pole Qualifying followed by the
Fans With Benefits 150 green flag at 8:00 CST. Live timing and scoring for
practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCARacing.com.
The race will be televised delayed on MAVTV.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized four times in 2017, Salem, Toledo, Madison & Elko.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Iowa
is multiple groove race track designed by NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace.
Lots of ways to get around Iowa and expect cars to be rim riding within 30 laps
of taking the green flag.

The long 5 race
road tour including Ohio, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin came
to an end Friday night in the Montgomery Ward 200 at Madison International
Speedway. Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his Mobile, Alabama team logged over 10,000
miles over the last 5 races saving the best finish for last.

The last couple
of weeks the team failed to take full advantage of good race cars leaving spots
and points on the table for competitors to take advantage of. With Madison so
similar to Mobile, the Moose and the team were loaded for Badger in Wisconsin.

Over the last
few races our DK-LOK Fords have been undergoing big changes under the chassis.
While our results haven’t shown the gains, the stop watch has.

“We really have
taken everything we thought we knew about set ups at each track and drastically
changed them to get the right feel in the race car. If you had told me 5 weeks
ago we would be where we are today I would have said no way. But starting with
Toledo it’s really made a big difference.”

Off the trailer
the Moose was quicker at Madison than in 2016. The team improved the
driveability, put in some adjustability for when the sun went down and Praytor
qualified 14th, the best of this 5 race road trip.

With a field
full of Ilmors in front of the Mobile driver, Praytor new patience and
conservation would be the key to a good night. The second issue was the crew.

With wedding,
family obligations and Spring Break our all UNOH pit crew was light 4 guys
headed in to the weekend. This seems to hit at Madison every year.

Like last year
the team reached out for help and soon found it with Dick Doheny. Dick or as we
call him “Bubba” drove for us some last year and is a great mechanic at the race
track. Plus by the time we got to the weekend the 10 car had lost it’s driver
and Doheny was then called in as a substitute.

Super Sub Bubba
would start the race for the 10, make a few laps and then come gas the 9 for
Praytor. Much in the same way Josh Reeves did for us last year. We then stole,
excuse me borrowed the rest of the 10 car guys and we had a full team.

With the drop
of the green flag the Moose did his job in the DK-LOK Ford and kept pace while
conserving tires and brakes. The field would come for tires at lap 74 but
Praytor was kept out trying to stretch tire wear and it bit the Moose.

Off sequence
the leaders and everyone else was hauling the mail putting Praytor down a lap
that was soon recovered with the lucky dog. Under caution many laps later
Praytor was able to take tires and get moving again.

In the midst of
all the old tire issues, Mike Basham who had an engine problem in practice came
to life with new tires and quickly put Praytor in his rear view mirror.

Praytor took
tires, Basham to the back. Basham took tires, Praytor to the back. This went on
until 20 to go when Praytor had a final set to change while Basham’s were gone,
advantage and spot to Praytor.

“Mike and I had
a lot of fun racing each other tonight. I don’t know how many times we passed
each other but it is always fun racing with someone you can trust.”

The DK-LOK Ford
rolled home unharmed and 13th, the best of the 5 race road trip.

“You wouldn’t
think 13th would be all that satisfying but we got all the spots we
could get tonight, that’s something we haven’t done the last few races. Want to
thank Dick and all of our part time crew for helping out, they did and awesome
job. I think with what we’ve learned we’ve decided to take Betty to Iowa in 2
weeks. Really looking forward to being back home for more than a couple of
days.”

The team has a
weekend off before the Fans With Benefits 150 at Iowa Speedway on July 8th.

Badger Country, Praytor to Madison Wisconsin

Montgomery Ward 200 at MADISON INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY:
The 9 car scored a 9th place finish in Madison last year and Thomas
“Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team are looking forward to getting back to the
half mile in Wisconsin. “Madison is the closest thing to my home track, Mobile
International Speedway, that we go to all year. I had one of my very first ARCA
starts here for Venturini Motorsports and I always like coming back.” While last
year produced a top 10 it wasn’t easy. “My line didn’t go on the opening start
and I crushed the nose in. We fought overheating all day but our guys kept
opening up the nose to get the motor some air.”

SPECIAL STICKER: The DK-LOK Ford will carry a special
sticker this weekend in honor of Amy Bluel. Amy’s Project SemiColon for suicide
prevention was our primary sponsor last year in Madison. Amy left us way too
soon in March of this year.

MEET THE MOOSE: Praytor will be meeting the fans and
signing autographs on the front stretch at 6:30 CST.

The Montgomery Ward 200 is a one day
event with technical inspection, practice, General Tire Pole Qualifying followed
by the Montgomery Ward 200 green flag at 8:00 CST. Live timing and scoring for
practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCARacing.com.
The race will be televised live on MAVTV.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the car to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized three times in 2017, Salem, Toledo & Elko.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Madison
is a classic short track and expect classic short track action with plenty of
pushing and shoving. The last few years this race has been run in the day and
there has been heavy attrition. We’ll see if the night isn’t any better for the
cars and the drivers.

It’s not often you can wreck three
times at the fastest track on the tour and still finish, but I get ahead of
myself.

Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK
Team left Pocono Raceway disappointed and with more questions than answer after
their first outing with an Ilmor.

With a whole lot of notes, the team
collectively put their heads together and started making changes to the DK-LOK
Ford at the shop for the Corrigan Oil 200 at Michigan International Speedway.

“The extra hard work and late nights
paid off for Michigan. I’ve never had a car that turned as well as ours did off
the trailer.”

On top of handling well the DK-LOK
Ford found a lot of speed picking up 3 seconds from last year’s outing at
Michigan to qualify 19th.

“Our car was really good but we still
needed it to roll the center better to get a really good time. That being said,
we were looking forward to the race.”

With the drop of the green flag
Praytor and his Ford were moving rapidly towards the front and things were
looking good early, then the day slowly started to come unraveled.

The 33 car put oil down in the groove
of turns 3 and 4, the Moose was the first on the scene.

“I felt a little something going in
and checked up some but by the time I got to the center of the corner my car was
gone.”

The DK-LOK Ford was now spinning at
190 MPH and somehow Praytor kept from stuffing the DK-LOK Ford into the wall.
The leader was soon in the oil himself and Brandon Jones went through the spin
cycle. Both drivers kept their cars in tact.

While the car was saved the tires were
done and the Moose came to pit road for 4 fresh General Tires.

Back under green Praytor was making up
for lost time passing cars in wholesale fashion working his way back towards the
front.

“We had a really good car I was
passing guys as fast as I could catch them. I tried to make an outside move off
turn 4 and my car got aero tight and I hit the wall.”

Without significant damage Praytor
kept digging under green and a few laps later the right front tire went flat.
Back to pit road for a new right front, this time under green and it was costly.

Back on the track the bad news kept
coming as the right front went flat again, back to pit road under green and the
boys replaced the tire pulled on the fender and sent Praytor back out.

Multiple laps down Praytor and the
team did the best they could to keep the DK-LOK Ford rolling to the finish but
the day was not over yet.

Late in the race an incident with the
55 sent it piling into the wall head first, with spotting help from Tab Boyd the
Moose slowed down and easily missed the wreck.

Another competitor most not have
gotten the telegram from his spotter there was a wreck and 4 seconds later he
crushed the entire left side of Praytor’s Ford and killed 2 more tires.

“We were really just trying to finish
and I don’t think this guy or his spotter ever saw the wreck, really
disheartening.”

Now the team had a new problem, they
were out of tires. The over the wall guys started combing pit road and Bret
Holmes team came to the rescue with 4 tires.

Now what was a good race car was
mostly junk and the team had to settle for a 19th place finish.

“Really disappointing day, we had a
good DK-LOK Ford and things didn’t go our way. Off to Madison next week for some
short track action.”

Another short week in the Mobile,
Alabama shop before heading to Madison Wisconsin for the Montgomery Ward 200 on
Friday night.

Irish Foothills of Michigan Up Next

Corrigan Oil 200 at MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY:
After a disappointing run in Pocono the team burned the midnight oil back at the
shop in Mobile to get ready for Michigan. “Michigan is another big, fast track
that gets your full attention when your turn down in to turn 1 at 200 miles per
hour. We’ve had good runs there and we have worked really hard on improving our
DK-LOK Ford after our learning weekend in Pocono.” Michigan has large area for
the kids and Praytor beat Chase Briscoe in the tricycle race last year. “It was
the only time I beat him all year but I still beat him!”

Fresh Grad Lowe Returns to Home State: In the
short week between Pocono and Michigan Crew Chief Adam Lowe returned to UNOH to
pick up his diploma. Lowe has made every race since joining the team in 2013,
that’s 88 consecutive starts. Lowe moved to Mobile to join the Max Force team
full time in April. Adam is pictured with his Grandmother (who should have
cookies for the team this weekend). MIS is a big stop for the Lowes, with Adam
hailing from around the corner in Chesterfield, Michigan.

The Corrigan Oil 200 is a two day
event with technical inspection and practice on Thursday with General Tire Pole
Qualifying on Friday with The Corrigan Oil 200 green flag at 5:00 CST. Live
timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the race will be on
ARCARacing.com.
The race will be televised live on Fox Sports 1,Channels in Mobile
Comcast/Xfinity 49/241HD, Mediacom 52, Direct TV 219, Dish 150, AT&T Uverse 652

CAR:
Roush Chassis # RK306.
306 was created as a downforce car but became the teams workhorse in 2015
starting in 9 of 20 races. Last year it was at Pocono, Michigan and Iowa by the
Moose. Praytor piloted #306 at Pocono Last weekend.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Michigan
is about horsepower and air. You need horses under the hood and a body to slip
through the air and around other cars. Could become a fuel mileage race, watch
fuel strategy starting early.

Pocono Raceway has been good to the
DK-LOK team over the years and with a new motor, Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his
team had high expectations for the General Tire, #anywhereispossible200.

After the quick turn around from Elko,
followed by the 22 hour drive to Pocono, the team spent Thursday going through a
day long technical inspection. While our car made it through tech, the Engine
guys at Ilmor had issues with our installation job in Mobile.

“We don’t get to run an Ilmor very
often but when we have the Ilmor Tuners at the track have really gone out of
their way to help make sure we are taken care of.”

After a day long tech the Ilmor guys
descended on the DK-LOK Ford to redo the wiring and insure our motor was ready
to go for Friday. The Ilmor team worked for 2 hours after the garage closed on
Thursday and returned on Friday morning to finish.

“The Ilmor at track team did a heck of
job going through our new set up. Ultimately I think they replaced a coil and an
injector, along with fixing our wiring. Once we made some laps the Ilmor Tuners
were back at our car downloading data and making recommendations. All of their
hard work paid off, the motor didn’t miss a beat in practice or the race.”

Off the trailer the DK-LOK Ford was
faster than last year picking up 2 seconds with the new motor but a long way to
go to being competitive.

“We were just tight, tight, tight in
practice. We made 3 pages of changes to free it up, we made it better but we
still weren’t very good.”

The team made another big round of
changes before qualifying and Praytor timed in 16th. A big wreck
during qualifying meant the field could not complete qualifying and the field
was set by practice time pushing Praytor back to 25th.

With the drop of the green flag
Praytor was conserving fuel in the DK-LOK Ford knowing he would have to get to
the halfway point to make it on 1 stop.

The rest of the field cooperated with
the first 39 laps going green and most of the field making short stops putting
Praytor in 14th.

“The first half of the race went our
way and we were set for the second half. Our DK-LOK Ford was still tight but we
had more to give it on pit road.”

With a full tank of fuel the team was
set for the second half of the race. Back under green the DK-LOK Ford was still
tight but better. Just a few laps under green the teams good day would come to
an end.

“We had a tire go down and I tried to
limp around looking for a caution but that was nowhere to be found. We had to
come to pit road under green and that just took us out of contention for a good
finish.”

After changing the flat tire the DK-LOK
Ford was back on track but it turned wicked loose.

“When the tire disintegrated on the
left front we must have torn a lot of stuff up and we were just limping around
trying to finish.”

The DK-LOK Ford rolled home a
respectable 24th but not what the team was looking for.

“Real disappointing end to a solid
effort with our first Ilmor in a non-restrictor plate race. Thanks to the guys
at Ilmor again for a lot of hard work to make sure we were right going on the
racetrack. Our car didn’t hang in but the motor cooked all 200 miles.”

Another short week in Mobile as the
team landed the DK-LOK hauler at midnight on Saturday and will be back on the
road to Michigan Tuesday afternoon for Corrigan Oil 200.

Top picture: Racing with Tony
Mrakovich down the mile long front stretch.

Praytor Swaps to Ilmor for Pocono

General Tire #anywhereispossible 200 at POCONO RACEWAY:
With close to 40 cars on the entry list for the General Tire #AnywhereIsPossible
200 the powers to be have green lighted an Ilmor for Thomas “Moose” Praytor for
this weekend’s race at Pocono Speedway. “Pocono is one of my favorite tracks and
even with the motor disadvantage we’ve been able to put together some solid runs
and hunt around the top 10. We’ve also been working really hard on our chassis
setup combinations and with an Ilmor we can find out how we stack up against a
stacked field.”

Home State Stop for Bair and Calabrese:
Homecoming this weekend at Pocono Raceway for crew members Tevin Bair and Angelo
Calabrese. Bair hails from Butler Pennsylvania just north of Pittsburgh.
Calabrese’s home is Hazelton, Pennsylvania less than an hour form the track.
Just like the Redneck relatives we host in Alabama this pair will have us loaded
up with Hillbillies and it’s always a good time!

MOOSE HEEL 100%: Praytor burned his right
heal with a 2nd degree burn in Salem. The 4” x 2” blister is gone and
the Moose has put up the Crocks for now and back to normal shoes.

The General Tire
#AnywhereIsPossible200 is a two day event with technical inspection on Thursday
with practice, General Tire Pole Qualifying on Friday with The General Tire
#AnywhereIsPossible200 kicking off at 4:45PM CST. Live timing and scoring for
practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCARacing.com. The race will be
broadcast live on FS1.

CAR:
Roush Chassis # RK306.
306 was created as a downforce car but became the teams workhorse in 2015
starting in 9 of 20 races. Last year it was at Pocono, Michigan and Iowa by the
Moose. Chris Bailey drove it in the season finale at Kansas Speedway in 2016.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Pocono
is one of the fastest and hardest tracks to get around on the tour. There is a
big field of cars with lots of Rookies hopefully they’ll get that out of their
system testing on Wednesday. Probably not!

SAD NEWS:
It’s with a heavy heart that we report a member of our racing family, Chris
Bailey and his wife Jessica lost their son Colton last week. “Our race team is
named after my brother Max who left us way too soon. Our family is all too
familiar with the pain and the heartache the Bailey’s are going through. The
Baileys will always be a part of our family and our heart aches with them,”
Thomas Praytor. Colton fought a brave uphill battle for months our thoughts and
prayers are with the Baileys. #justkeepswimming

Elko maybe
the smallest track on the tour but it comes with some of the biggest expectation
for the DK-LOK team and veteran driver Thomas “Moose” Praytor and a raucous
packed house got they were looking for Saturday night.

Praytor had
more laps than any active driver at the Minnesota track and garnered his first
ARCA top 10 in 2013. Off the trailer the DK-LOK Ford was solid and the team
tweaked the chassis during practice.

“We didn’t
bring enough gear even though we brought more gear than we’ve ever have before
to a race track, so we’ll mark that down for next time. We worked in some areas
on the chassis that we think paid dividends at Elko and might help us in Madison
in a few weeks.”

The line
score from Elko will say started 16th, finished 15th but
will not reflect the pushing, shoving, banging, dodging and craziness of the 250
laps of the Shore Lunch 250 in Minnesota.

“We had a
crazy night, I know I got knocked completely sideways several times and I need
to apologize to A.J. Fike. I misjudged corner exit and just about sent him to
the hot dog stand, fortunately he kept it going straight. That’s just the way
these short track races are now, the fans got their money’s worth tonight.”

“We felt like
after practice we had 15th place car and several opportunities to
capitalize on a better finish but we just couldn’t get the breaks to go our way.
Elko is so short we planned on 2 tire stops all night and tried some folks in
new positions and everyone did their job.”

“Somewhere
around lap 150 we should have taken tires but we were trying to stretch it to
have good tires to race the lap 50 laps and the race went on along green flag
run catching us off guard. It cost us some laps but not any positions, race
management is always tricky.”

“We continue
to have great people at the race track with us every week. This week we had the
McManus family and we had a blast along with our intern Elizabeth Hooper.”

The team has
only a day and a half in Mobile to finish their Pocono car for the General Tire
anywhere is Possible 200 on Friday.

Did You Hear the One About the Hindu and the Rednecks?

The title
sounds like the beginning of a bad joke but in fact it is the story of how Pawan
Vittal made it 8,565 miles from Mysore, Karnataka, India to UNOH to working for
an ARCA team based out of Mobile, Alabama.

Vittal is
part of the UNOH High Performance Team that sends interns to race teams from
Dirt to NASCAR. In 2017 he was assigned to Max Force Racing with 6 other UNOH
students to work for Thomas and Tommy Praytor.

In India, the
Vittal family is very successful in many fields of endeavor but Pawan has the
racing bug that includes being a navigator for a road rally team back home.

“I am
definitely the black sheep of the family,” said Vittal. “The rest of my family
is so successful and all I want to do is race.”

From India to
the biggest racing stage in the world Vittal was dropped off in the deep end
with the Praytor’s at Daytona.

“I asked
Pawan what his name was 3 times before I asked the rest of the group what did
they call him,” laughs Tommy Praytor. “Finally somebody said we call him Pete.”

Prior to
Daytona “Pete” had never been anywhere in the United States other than Lima,
Ohio. Since Daytona Vittal has made stops in Talladega, Nashville, Salem and
Toledo and will soon be in Elko Minnesota. By the end of the season he will have
seen more of America than most Americans.

“It has been
fun seeing the US, there are so many unique places,” offered Vittal.

Needless to
say pairing a devout Hindu with a team from Alabama, created some cultural
differences.

“First thing
we found out was Pawan was a vegetarian. The only vegetarians in Alabama are
rabbits. For a team that survives on Hamburgers and Monroe Sausage my Mom had to
adjust her cooking plan quickly,” said Thomas Praytor.

After a
couple of races the team understood Pete enough to know his name was Pawan and
even Tommy has gotten into the closing the cultural divide. “Each morning I
greet Pawan with the traditional Hindu greeting, Namaste while bowing and
clasping my hands together. Pawan will shake my hand with an American, Good
Morning.”

While not
exactly détente having Vittal on the team has been a learning experience for
everyone.

Julie
Praytor, “Pawan is so kind and considerate, he’s really been a big help and a
lot of fun to have on our team.”

In the midst
of the cultural divide and a language barrier that is rapidly disappearing
(neither side is certain whether Pawan’s English is better or they can just
understand him) Pawan and his UNOH teammates have gelled into a cohesive unit
that’s pushed Thomas Praytor back into the top 10 of the ARCA Series standings.

“At the end
of the day we don’t care if you’re from India, Michigan, Maine or Alabama we
have a race team to run and everyone has to do their job,” offered Tommy. “In
just 5 races Pawan is doing a great job of fitting in and working hard with the
rest of our guys.”

Elko Speedway
is the smallest track on the tour and the team will have its most challenging
pit stop during the Shore Lunch 250 on June 3rd.

Reflecting on
his first 5 races Vittal offered these thoughts, “This has been a great
experience for me, the Praytor’s welcomed me as part of their family. That means
I get yelled at like everyone else by the Boss but I’m also learning a lot about
racing and rednecks.”

Racing with
Rednecks and a Hindu.

Veteran Praytor Leads All Active Drivers at Elko

SHORE LUNCH 250 at Elko Speedway: The
smallest track on the tour comes at the end of one the longest commutes for the
Max Force team, 24 hours from Mobile. Elko returns to the schedule in 2017 after
a two year layoff. Thomas “Moose” Praytor has the most laps and most starts at
Elko of any active driver. ”Elko is a fun track, we got our first ARCA top 10
there in 2013. Lots of close racing and the fans are in to it.”

MEET THE MOOSE: The Moose will be meeting
fans and signing autographs Saturday, June 3rd on the front stretch from
6:15-7:15 at Elko.

MOOSE GETTING BETTER: Praytor burned his right
heal with a 2nd degree burn in Salem. The 4” x 2” blister is almost
gone and Praytor is trying to transition out of the Crocks he’s been wearing the
last few weeks to normal shoes.

The Shore Lunch 250 is a one day event
with technical inspection, practice, General Tire Pole Qualifying on Saturday
with the Shore Lunch 250 kicking off at 8:00PM CST. Live timing and scoring for
practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCARacing.com. The race will be
broadcast live on MAVTV.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the Moose to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and Betty has been
utilized twice in 2017, Salem & Toledo. Betty got beat up pretty good in Toledo
and the team has given her a quick make over for Elko.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Only
Thomas and one other drive in the field have turned laps in an ARCA car at Elko.
Lots of inexperience, wild action! The track is really small and slippery,
expect a lot of pushing and shoving.

FREDRICSBURG, Va. — When Thomas Praytor and Willie Mullins teamed up as drafting
partners during the General Tire 200 at Talladega (Ala) Superspeedway on May 6,
it was actually just the latest collaboration between the pair of low-budget
racers.

Praytor and Mullins have been helping each other since 2015 when Mullins Racing
fielded a car for J.J. Pack in the season opening event at Daytona Int’l
Speedway. Praytor let Mullins enter the car with Praytor’s 2014 ARCA Racing
Series owner points, which allowed Pack to make the race via provisional.

“Coming up to Daytona we didn’t have a number with any kind of points,” Mullins
recalled. “Our crew chief Andy Belmont put us together with Thomas Praytor and
we got their points from the previous year. Inevitably that is what got J.J.
Pack into the show that first year. By using their points we were able to get
that 40th-place starting position at Daytona in 2015.”

Praytor, a veteran racer who has 89 ARCA starts under his belt, said the
friendship with Mullins grew quickly following that weekend at Daytona in 2015.

“Ever since then we both realized we were small teams and we needed to help each
other because that is how racing is these days,” Praytor said. “Now we’re three
or four years down the road and we’re still good friends.”

Since then Praytor and Mullins have helped each other out many times. In fact,
Praytor once let Mullins borrow a sway bar from him for more than nine months.
Mullins eventually returned it, but not without a bit of harmless ribbing from
Praytor.

“He came walking in the trailer at the end of last year with that sway bar and I
said, ‘Oh…the infamous sway bar,’” Praytor recalled between laughs. “There it
was coming back in to my possession.”

As a show of support, and admittedly a bit of a joke, Praytor even wore one of
Mullins’ T-shirts under his driving suit during the General Tire 200. Mullins
admitted when he saw Praytor before the race wearing his shirt, he couldn’t help
but smile.

“The story behind that is it started off with my girlfriend giving his
girlfriend a T-shirt just because of some friendly kidding back and forth,”
Mullins explained. “Well when we were getting ready to get in the cars he came
up to me and said, ‘Oh, by the way…’ and it was just too funny.

“It actually made my day that someone would go out of their way to make me laugh
and it made us feel good and appreciated a little bit. After the race I wanted
to make sure I got a picture with him.”

Praytor said that picture, taken by Mullins’ fiancee Dinah Thompson, is much
more than just two racers having a good laugh. It’s a pair of friends and
competitors who have each other’s back.

“When I showed him that I was wearing it and saw the look on his face, I said I
guess this does mean a little something,” Praytor said. “All I’m sure anybody
see’s is me wearing a shirt that says ‘Big Willie Style’ on it and another racer
standing next to me. Really nobody knows the meaning of that picture or what is
going on, but it is kind of cool to have our own little meaning to the picture.

“Of course it turned out it was the best we’d done at Talladega in quite awhile,
so I’ll be sure to wear that thing next time out. I’ll have to dig it out of the
dirty clothes and wear it at Toledo in a couple of weeks,” Praytor said with a
laugh.

Both Mullins and Praytor say that its important for the small teams, like
Mullins Racing and Praytor’s Max Force Racing, to work together to combat the
bigger teams like Venturini Motorsports and Cunningham Motorsports.

“We don’t do this every weekend, so if we’re missing something on pit road and
we don’t have time to go back, those guys are the ones that are there to help
us,” Mullins said. “At Daytona we needed help on pit road and we went down to
the Praytor’s and those guys were more than happy to help. They sent a person
down to help us because we were having trouble getting the window net up. They
saved our qualifying position at Daytona when that happened.

“It’s important that all us little guys band together to try and make a little
bit bigger of a team to put on a better show for ARCA.”

Praytor echoed Mullins’ thoughts, saying that people like Mullins are exactly
what the phrase “racing family” represents.

“These big, fully funded teams have got every kind of resource you could
possibly think of to get whatever they need,” Praytor said. “I could think of
several occasions where Willie has come down to me or I have gone down to Willie
looking for a certain piece that I didn’t have but he had or vice versa.

“It just shows how big the racing family is. Willie can walk down to me and take
two or three drawers in my toolbox just because he needed it and I wouldn’t
think twice about it. That’s just what we’ve got to do to make it.

“At the end of the day, it’s crazy that a couple of small town guys that don’t
have a lot of money are getting to compete with the big guys in the ARCA Racing
Series at Daytona and Talladega.”

Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his Mobile,
Alabama based team have seen good and bad runs at the ARCA Series home track in
Toledo, Ohio, with a stacked field of cars Praytor and his DK-LOK team knew they
would have their hands full.

Weather once again dominated the
weekend with teams dodging rain in route to the Speedway and once on the ground
in Toledo.

The first lap of practice was an
indicator of what kind of weekend the DK-LOK Ford had ahead when a fellow
competitor hit the Moose in the driver’s side door ripping the front fender off
the Ford.

“There is always a big field of bad
ass cars at Toledo and you know it’s going to get physical but dang, we hadn’t
even made lap.”

The damage to the DK-LOK Ford was
minimal but the tone was set for the weekend.

Later in practice Praytor was behind
the 80 of Brian Finney when he suddenly slowed on the race track. Initially
Praytor checked up then went around the wounded Finney machine to see it was on
fire.

“Hated to see that happen to the
Finney’s. They are a great racing family and have been great friends and
competitors. Glad Brian is OK and I hope they get back to the track really
soon.”

With the most eventful practice of the
year in the rear view mirror Praytor and his team got ready for qualifying.
Mother nature took over washing out the rest of the afternoon, the field would
roll off by practice times, the DK-LOK Ford 21st.

Race day in Toledo is big even when
the weather is not cooperating and a big crowd showed up for autographs before
the race.

“As one of the guys that’s been around
the longest now it’s fun seeing the some of the same people at certain tracks
that are following you all year long.”

Rain pushed the start of the Menards
200 back an hour a so but the wait was worth it as the ARCA drivers put on a a
2 wide, 3 wide and even 4 wide thrill show for the next 2 hours.

With the drop of the green everyone
was grabbing for all they could get with no one expecting the race to make 200
laps. The Moose picked up 4 spots on the track and stayed in a spirited battle
for more until the first caution on lap 45.

Smart money had rain moving back in
before 200 laps and the front runners took tires thinking they were racing to
lap 100. Praytor stayed out.

“We felt like our best shot was to
hang on until around 50 to go and catch the leaders with old tires.”

Under green Praytor was working hard
to stay on or near the lead lap holding each position, looking for cautions to
save his tires.

“I knew I was supposed to be saving
tires but these guys were racing hard and we got in there and mixed it up having
a blast.”

Mixing it up was an understatement
with Praytor spending the bulk of the race side by side and at points 3 wide or
even 4 wide.

In order for the teams tire strategy
to work timing was the key. You wanted tires soon enough to keep from going a
lap down and late enough to be effective against the top 10.

“We missed out tire window by 1
caution and we stayed green too long costing us a lap and keeping us from
getting to mix it up with the top 10.”

After a wild 200 laps Praytor brought
the DK-LOK Ford home 14th, a little battered and bruised but it will
be ready for Elko in 2 weeks.

“We had a shot at a little better
finish today it just didn’t work out. Solid day for our race team, especially
considering my track record at Toledo. Crazy racing on the track it’s been that
way all year and it will get even wilder at Elko.”

Team has a week off before heading to
Elko Speedway in Minnesota for the Shore Lunch 250.

MENARDS 200 presented by Federated Car Care at TOLEDO SPEEDWAY:
The ARCA Series returns to its home base this weekend at Toledo Speedway. Over
the years Praytor has had a love hate relationship with the big half mile in
Ohio. “I love racing there but there are times I don’t think the track like me
very much.” Several year ago the Alabama native tried to knock the turn 3 wall
down destroying a lot of foam in what the team calls Foamageddon.

This year the team is coming off a fantastic outing at Talladega that shot the
Moose in to the top 10 in the ARCA standings for the first time this season. “We
had a lot of fun at Talladega a lot of friends, family and sponsors always good
to run up front in Alabama.”

MEET THE MOOSE: The Moose will be meeting
fans and signing autographs Sunday May 21st on the front stretch from Noon –
1:00PM CST at Toledo Speedway.

MOOSE STILL HEALING: Praytor burned his right
heal with a 2nd degree burn in Salem. The 4” x 2” blister is down to
a 1”x2” but is still causing a limp still.

The Menards 200 is a 3 day event at
Toledo Speedway with Rig Parking Friday night followed by technical inspection,
practice and General Tire Pole Qualifying on Saturday with the Menards 200
kicking off at 1:00PM CST. Live timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and
the race will be on ARCARacing.com. The race will be broadcast on Fox Sports 1
at 4PM CST.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the Moose to his
career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200 and was utilized in Salem
earlier this year.* Praytor’s DK-LOK Ford is powered by Roush Yates Ford Motors

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS
WEEKEND:Toledo
is a lot like Mobile International Speedway, a big half mile, wide and very
fast. Tires are important but not like at Salem Speedway a few weeks ago. The
turn 1 bleachers are actually part of the upper deck from Michigan International
Speedway and are usually packed.

“Giving back has been ingrained us from my Grandmother (Jamie Praytor), not only
is the right thing to do it is a lot of fun. To be recognized by Mr. Randy and
the folks at Channel 5 is very humbling.”

Alabama’s Praytor Puts On A Show at Talladega

For Thomas “Moose”
Praytor and his Mobile, Alabama based Max Force Race Team Talladega is more than
just a race, it’s a Homecoming filled with family, friends, fans, sponsors,
special guest and an opportunity for the Moose to put on a show in front of the
home state fans.

A short week after the
Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 in Salem had Praytor and his team hopping back at
the shop in Mobile. The Super Speedway car was delivered from the paint booth at
Rettigs Auto on Monday and the team put the finishing touches on the Alabama
Institute for Deaf & Blind (AIDB) Ford for Talladega.

What was already a long
weekend got longer when the team pulled out of Mobile Thursday night to only
make it 13 miles up the interstate before coming to a dead stop for 5 hours for
an accident. A little late for Tech Day on Thursday but the team got to
Talladega just in time for the rain.

A long tech day and a
lot of rain on Thursday led to a lot of rain on Friday morning causing the
schedule to be turned upside down. At just after lunch the ARCA teams got a 30
minute practice session to shake down their cars.

Praytor made a quick 4
laps on the race track, the team took care of a wheel rub and the car cover was
put back over the AIDB Ford Fusion for the General Tire 200 slated for later in
the day.

All of the work to the
AIDB Ford had been done in Mobile after the car was wrecked in Daytona. “We felt
really good about our car, we’ve learned a lot over the years about air and the
guys at Rettigs worked really hard slicking our car back up for Talladega. We
didn’t see any need to put laps on our car or take a chance drafting.”

Mother Nature refused to
cooperate on Friday for racing but it gave Praytor a lot of time to talk with
the crowd gathering at the Max Force Hauler including the team’s special guest
from AIDB. “We have always participated in the AIDB Race Fever Auction and
spending time with the kids is what it’s all about. They are reworking the
Auction this year so we had a couple of the kids come out to the track so we
could spend some time with them and what a blast!” (DeKendrick Graves & Jeffrey
Oliver)

While the rain dragged
on, Associate Sponsor, AQUASALT had a suite loaded with guests and the Moose
gathered up his new buddies from AIDB and went visiting. “Suite visits are so
much fun. The people in the suite are having a good time, they are pulling for
you and they just get you pumped up. Of course I had my two straight men with me
Dee and Jeff and they can put a smile on anybody’s face.”

Unfortunately the Suite
visit ran longer than expected because the rain never let up, racing was
cancelled for Friday afternoon and moved to Saturday afternoon. A special shout
out to Talladega Superspeedway for making room for our AQUASALT folks to stay
for Saturday.

After another long day
of doing nothing other than waiting for 5:00PM Praytor and his team were beyond
ready to race. “You get your mind set to go on Friday, you do all these things
that you do on a normal race day, then you don’t race, then it’s another 24
hours and you go through the whole process again.”

The AIDB Ford would
finally roll off 10th, Praytor and his Spotter Tab Boyd (Playing
hooky from Joey Logano) were ready to go. With the drop of the green flag, the
Moose guided by Boyd rumbled to the front and made his way up to the 6th
spot before the General Tire 200 would finally settle down.

“Tab was doing an
awesome job from the roof and we had a really fast car, a little darty but
fast.”

At lap 25 the caution
flag was out for debris on the track. Team calculations before the race said
they needed to get to lap 30 before they were good to the end. This was the same
predicament the team found itself in Daytona.

In Daytona the team
stayed out while the rest of the field gambled and came in for fuel. In
Talladega the AIDB Ford was called to pit road for a fuel only stop. “We let it
all hang out in Talladega.”

With the ARCA Series
racing in companion with the NASCARs Xfinity Series and the Monster Cup Series a
lot of teams opted for pit road help from the NASCAR garage, we stuck with our
all UNOH crew and they held serve with the best in the business only giving up 2
spots on pit road.

Back under green Boyd
and Praytor were moving in unison as the Moose rumbled up to 4th.
“Tab does such a good job, he sees stuff before it happens and helps us get the
runs we need it in the draft.”

The AIDB Ford settled in
to the 5th spot and started logging laps, setting up how to take on
the finish.

Praytor dodge the big
one (pic at top of story) but a new problem was developing for the Alabama
native, 3rd gear was gone. The problem with losing 3rd
gear is each restart bogged Praytor down until he could get up to speed allowing
cars to drop down in front of him pushing him back in the running order.

“It was really
frustrating, we had such a great car and the motor was still going but our car
just wouldn’t go.” With each late caution the transmission started to rattle in
every gear as the missing pieces off 3rd gear started bouncing around
inside.

As the final laps wore
down Praytor slipped all the way back to 16th and under one of the
cautions the AIDB Ford came to pit road and topped off with fuel to eliminate
the fuel gamble. The move gave Praytor breathing room when the race went to over
time.

A caution on the final
lap set the field, for a one lap dash for cash. Boyd and Praytor put together a
restart plan that catapulted the AIDB Ford forward on the final restart picking
up 4 spots on the final lap coming home 12th, a career best at
Talladega.

“We had a great weekend
at Talladega. Twelfth was a little disappointing after running in the top 5 all
day but we continue to show speed everywhere we go. It was really a great
weekend, so many friends, a lot of support from Mobile. Thanks to AIDB for
letting us be a part of their tremendous program.”

After a big weekend
there was only one thing left to do on Saturday night, well it is Talladega!

A week off and the
Series heads to Toledo for the Menards 200 on Sunday May 21st, live
on Fox Sports 1.

Praytor Teams With Alabama Institute Deaf & Blind At Talladega

GENERAL TIRE 200 AT TALLADEGA SPEEDWAY: Thomas
“Moose” Praytor is teaming up with the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind (AIDB)
for Friday’s General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway. Praytor has been a
long-time supporter of AIDB having donated auction items to Race Fever while
spending time with the kids. “We say we do it for the kids but the kids make you
feel really special when your with them, I know I get more out of it then they
do.” This year’s annual Race Fever Event and Auction has been postponed and the
Moose is taking his support to the track with a special AIDB hood and having
some of the students join the crew on race day.

While Praytor’s Alabama based team spends most of the season traveling to far
off tracks, Talladega is a rare racing opportunity in front of the “hometown”
crowd. “The insanity of the draft is awesome, but my favorite part about coming
to Talladega, is I am surrounded by my friends, family and my home state fans.”

MOOSE PLAYING HURT AT TALLADEGA:
The 100 plus lap green flag run at Salem last week burned Praytor’s right foot.
The heat from the floorboard burned through Praytor shoe creating a 2” x 4” burn
blister on his heel. Team Doctor Lynn Dyess has been treating the 2nd
degree burn all week in preparation for Talladega. Dyess has fashioned a special
bandage to allow the heel to have clearance inside Praytor right G-Force Boot.
When asked about driving at Talladega with a burned right foot Praytor
responded, “It’s OK, its Talladega my heel never touches the car anyway.”

SALTY SUITE TIME AT TALLADEGA:
Praytor will be making an appearance on Friday after qualifying with the
employees and guest of Associate Sponsor AQUASALT in their suite overlooking
Talladega Superspeedway. Founded in 1928, AQUASALT is the purest salt available
for swimming pool and spa chlorine generators.

The General Tire 200 is a 2 day event starting with technical inspection
Thursday. The gates open bright and early at 6 am Friday morning for an
incredible day of events, starting with practice at 8:30. We will then roll
into General Tire qualifying at 2:30 pm, and the green flag will drop at 5PM
CST. Live timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the race will be on
ARCAracing.com. The race will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1. Also, please
follow us on Twitter (@DKLOKRacing), Instagram (Thomas Praytor), and Facebook (Dk-Lok
Racing) for live trackside updates from our PR team.

Fuel
Hiccup Cost Praytor Top 10 at Salem

After two DNFs to start the
season Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team were looking forward to the
friendly confines of Salem Speedway and the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200.

“We have so many laps at Salem
plus we had our best car we really felt good after being beat up the in the
first two races.”

While the DK-LOK team was ready
for a good weekend Mother Nature had other plans with a deluge on Saturday
morning that flooded the racetrack.

ARCA officials cancelled
qualifying, pushed back the schedule and with a little help from upstairs teams
were able to get a solid hour of practice in on Saturday afternoon.

“We had a solid practice, old
Black Betty never missed a beat. We chased the track just a little going from
green (rubber washed off during rain) to really blacked in. I think we missed
our gear selection a little which hurt us on the short run but would come back
and help us during the race.”

With qualifying rained out the
field was set by practice times and the Moose would roll of 16th.

“We made a lot of changes to our
DK-LOF Ford anticipating the track changes with more rubber being laid down
during the stock race before us and the rubber build up with the ARCA cars, it
really paid off.”

With the drop of the green flag
Praytor was on conserve mode trying to save tires at the old abrasive track.
After an early caution at lap 20 the race took on a green flag look going over
100 more laps without a caution.

The Moose who grew up turning
laps at another old track, Pensacola’s 5 Flags Speedway was waiting for them. On
que at lap 80 Praytor turned the wick up and the cars running away from the DK-LOK
Ford quit moving forward and started coming back.

“I love old wore out tracks
because it equals the equipment playing field and it turns into a driver versus
driver event.”

With the IImor advantage gone,
body advantage gone, weight advantage gone, for the first time since Daytona
Praytor was on an even playing field with the rich kids. The 27 year old ARCA
Ironman put on a clinic for racing on old tires.

By lap 90 the Moose was passing
top 10 cars by lap 100 he was in the top 5 and was now lapping himself from
other top 10 cars.

“I had a lot of fun passing cars
then I had even more fun lapping them.”

At first the kids struggled to
keep Praytor behind them, then they were getting out of his way while being
lapped. The Moose rumbled up into the top 10 before the caution flag flew at lap
126 then the weirdest thing happened, the DK-LOK Ford just quit.

“At first I thought we had an
electrical issue, then I realized we were out of gas.” A normal gas load should
have taken the team to lap 150 or so. “This is the first time this fuel cell has
been run since it was inspected, we obviously have something going on inside
there we need to get fixed.”

The safety truck got to the
stranded DK-LOK Ford quickly but not quick enough to keep from giving up
valuable laps earned under the long green flag run and a top 10 finish was gone.

For the rest of the race Praytor
held his 14th spot and brought the DK-LOK Ford home without a
scratch.

“It’s amazing how clean our car
is with all the racing forwards and backwards we did today. Nice to load one up
without a wrecker, ready to be back home in Talladega.”

Short week for team DK-LOK as
the ARCA teams report to Talladega Superspeedway Thursday morning at 6:00AM for
General Tire 200 on Friday afternoon live on Fox Sports 1.

Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway:
Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK Team have already collected more DNFs in
the first 2 races of 2017 than they have the last 2 seasons combined. “It’s
frustrating for team that is known for going the distance but we have had very
competitive race cars in the first 2 races.” Salem is the perfect place for
Praytor needing a solid finish, Praytor has more starts at Salem than any other
track on the tour. “Really like Salem, old wore out place, bad fast, taking
Black Betty, looking forward to it.” This weekend will be Praytor’s first
weekend as ARCA’s Active Ironman,”I just really can’t thank everyone enough that
has gotten me to this point from my family and friends to all of our sponsors to
the other crews at the racetrack, I wouldn’t get to continue this dream without
them.”

The Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 is a 2 day, double header including the Great
American Stocks racing before the Kentuckiana Ford 200 on Sunday April 30th.
Follow the Moose throughout the weekends hour and a half practice session and
qualifying on Saturday, with the green flag flying at 1:15 PM CST. Live timing
and scoring for practice, qualifying and the race will be on ARCAracing.com. The
race will be broadcast tape delayed on MAV TV on May 20th 8PM CST. Also, you can
follow us on social media, Twitter (@DKLOKRacing), Instagram (Thomas Praytor),
and Facebook (DK-LOK Racing) for live trackside updates from our PR team.

MEET THE MOOSE:
Fans will get to meet The Moose Sunday, on the front stretch from 11:30 to 12:30
prior to the race.

CAR:
Roush Chassis #461,”Black Betty”-Black Betty has been the team’s short track
stalwart and was one the 2nd car the team purchased. Praytor drove the Moose to
his career best ARCA finish of 7th at the ARCA Mobile 200. Praytor’s DK-LOK Ford
is powered by Roush Yates Ford Motors.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS WEEKEND:
The fans in the stands are in for a ride as Salem is like no other track in the
circuit. The name of the game this week is going to be tire conservation. You
will hear our spotter Tommy Praytor say “Conserve, Conserve, Conserve” a hundred
times before the race is complete. Although, as the race dwindles down, all bets
are off for Victory Lane!

The SALEM SPEEDWAY:
.555 Mile Paved Oval

Praytor Takes Over Active ARCA Ironman Status

With his 83rd
consecutive start in the Music City 200 Thomas “Moose” Praytor takes over as the
ARCA Series Active Ironman. Currently Praytor has more consecutive starts in
ARCA than any other active driver.

The Ironman in any
sport is usually reserved for throwback style players, Footballs, Jim Marshall,
Baseballs Cal Ripken and drivers like Frank Kimmel, Ricky Rudd, Terry Labonte
and Mobile’s Rick Crawford, the long time Ironman of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck
Series. Not only do they play hard, they worked hard in the shop and that work
ethic keeps them coming to the racetrack, when others would call it a day.

Rudd taped his
eyelids open to race, on 2 occasions Marshall walked out of the hospital to join
his team on game day, Crawford left the infield Care Center to win at Daytona
and Kimmel made 386 consecutive starts on his way to 10 Championships. Praytor
has already experienced his share of tough starts, kidney stones, carbon
monoxide poisoning, head dingers, torn muscles and some bones & joints that will
tell him the weather forecast for years to come. But the Moose keeps on going.

“The idea that I’m
still in the Series, still coming to the track every week is just incredible. We
were only supposed to make 3 starts five years ago and well we’re still going. I
don’t really think about being the Ironman, I just think about how fortunate I
am to have a ride and nothing is going to keep me out of it.”

Climbing into a
racecar was not always been a given, in 2003, while racing at Sunny South
Raceway, Praytor hit the wall so hard his seat assembly came loose from the car
allowing his head to hit the wall on impact.

Lifeflighted from the
track, Praytor was in a coma for a week, survival first, racing would have to
come second. Once on the mend, the Doctors prescribed one year of no racing or
football. Praytor spent the year rehabbing his body and rebuilding his wrecked
race car while spotting for his Dad. At the end of the year, the Doctors cleared
the Moose to return to action but Mom was a much tougher sell. Eventually she
came around and Praytor was back in the saddle.

“I never have
remembered the wreck but I’ll never forget that year on the sidelines. I think
the year off really made me appreciate the opportunities you have. I look at
each start as special, I know there are thousands of other guys who would kill
for my spot and I’m not giving up my seat to anybody.”

While the laps
continue to pile up (Over 10,000) Praytor and his family owned Max Force Racing
are focused on not just starting but improving. Last season Praytor turned in
his best season on tour finishing 5th in the Championship Standings.
And like the song says “with a little help from my friends.”

“There are so many
people that have contributed to me being here. Belmont and Venturini gave me a
shot, Hixson really got me going and every major owner in the series has
contributed to me staying here. The support we receive in Mobile is just
incredible, day and night friends come by the shop, pitch in and help us get our
cars prepared for the track. We couldn’t do it without all of our friends.”

Most young drivers
look at the ARCA Series as a stepping stone to bigger rides, Praytor has a
unique perspective: “If it all ended tomorrow I’ve done more than I ever dreamed
I would get to do as a race car driver. Daytona, Talladega, Pocono those were
fantasy tracks on my computer not reality for a Super Stock driver from Mobile
International Speedway. We still have so much more we want to accomplish.”

Consecutive start #84
is the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway on April 30th.

Praytor Hits Sour Note in Music City

The Music City 200 presented by Azure Foundation has
become one of Thomas “Moose” Praytor’s favorite on the ARCA Tour. Classic short
track action mixed with a big field of high octane competitors make for great
racing. The 2017 installment was anything but to the DK-LOK team and worse to
the Chassis chosen for the assignment, RK-500.

The day began
in usual fashion with the team working hard on finding the right balance on the
DK-LOK Ford. With a long list of changes during the hour and a half practice
session the Moose qualified 18th placing the legacy motor ahead of
some of the new Ilmor engines.

With the drop
of the green flag the Moose and his DK-LOK Ford resembled a salmon swimming up
stream versus a man on the move. In the first few laps of tight racing Praytor
picked off the cars in front of him but he was in the middle of a pack moving
forward and one of the cars took off his right rear quarter panel puncturing the
tire.

A small hole
turned into big handling problems and the Moose started to fall back, the hole
gave way to a blow out and he was in for wild sideways ride before getting under
control. The spotter had him stay on track looking for a caution that finally
came costing the team valuable track position early.

Three laps
down Praytor started racing hard to put the DK-LOK Ford in position for the
lucky dog. Three laps turned to two, two to one and the caution needed to put
the team on the lead lap ended the night. Two car got together off of turn 4
blocking the track in front of Praytor and the Fusion T-Bone one of the cars
destroying the radiator in Praytor’s Ford.

“We had a
decent DK-LOK Ford just a bad night on the race track. The guys worked hard in
practice and really improved our race car and we had a solid qualifying effort
taking out some of the Ilmors. It’s amazing how much this track has changed
since last year. I don’t think we have the balance where we need it yet on our
cars and we’ll keep working on it. Looks like we’ll bring back Black Betty to
Salem, another great short track car. We had a lot of local support up from
Alabama this weekend really appreciate everyone being there.”

A few weeks
off before the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 at Salem Speedway April 30th
on MAVTV.

Praytor Ready For First Short Track of 2017

Music City
200 presented by Azure Foundation at the NASHVILLE FAIRGROUNDS SPEEDWAY: “I really like short track
racing and Nashville is a big half mile track that is a lot of fun to race on.
Nashville is a good track for us and we’ve been working hard on our short track
program, we should get a good indication of what we have this weekend.” In
addition to racing in Nashville, Thomas “Moose” Praytor has made the Music City
a regular stop including trips to the CMA Awards, American Country Countdown
Awards including some favorite honky tonks in Downtown Nashville. “Nashville is
one of the places you wish was like a 3 day show so you could go Downtown and
enjoy some of what the City has to offer. That’s why I like coming back here so
much when we’re not racing.”

The Music City 200
PRESENTED BY Azure Foundationis a 1
day event double header including an ARCA CRA/Southern Super Series race before
the Music City 200 on Saturday April 8th. The Music City 200 will
begin at 8:00 PM CST. Live timing and scoring for practice, qualifying and the
race will be on ARCAracing.com. The race will be broadcast live on MAV TV.

CAR: Roush Chassis
#500-Chassis500 is the Moose’s favorite short track car and was run at
all the short track races, road course and dirt races in 2016. Praytor’s DK-LOK
Ford is powered by Roush Yates Ford Motors.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR
THIS WEEKEND:
Nashville is the first short track on the 2017 calendar and there are a lot of
young drivers too young to race at Daytona making their ARCA debut-hang on!
Opened in 1904 the old track in the middle of the State Fair Grounds is steeped
in racing history with winners picking up a Nashville guitar in Victory Lane.

In most cases
when you combine a race car driver and Alabama State Troopers for a week,
the outcome usually isn’t too good for the driver. This time Thomas “Moose”
Praytor finally earned some paperwork from the Alabama Department of Public
Safety that wasn’t a ticket.

Professor Praytor
added CDL Examiner to his non racing resume and now has the same power as an
Alabama State Trooper to administer the CDL driver’s exam.

“The last few
semesters teaching at Bishop State has been really rewarding. Every one of our
students has been employed within a week of completing our course”, said
Praytor. “Bishop State gave me the opportunity to go to school with the Troopers
and that was a whole new learning experience!”

With a hole in
the ARCA schedule after Daytona Praytor has enjoyed the time away from the shop
but is ready to get back behind the wheel.

“Nashville is a
good track for us and we’ve been working really hard on our short track cars in
the off season and we’re looking forward to the Fairgrounds.”

The Music City 200 presented by the Azure
Foundation is Saturday, April the 8th at the Fairgrounds Speedway in
Nashville. Practice is 1:15 to 2:45 with General Tire Pole Qualifying at 4:15.
The green flag is slated to wave at 8:00PM CST. Live timing and scoring of
practice and qualifying will be on
www.arcaracing.com. The Music City 200
will be the first live broadcast on MAVTV. With the addition of MAVTV all 20
ARCA Series races will be televised in 2017.

Daytona Ends In A
Cloud of Smoke,
Dirt & Disappointment for Praytor

Max Force
Racing began its 20th Season of competition at the World Center of
Speed in the Lucas Oil Complete Engine Treatment 200 driven by General Tire on
Saturday.

After a career
season in 2016 Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his Max Force Team rolled in to
Daytona looking to capitalize on the momentum they created last season.

Technical
inspection and practice went as planned with the Moose clocking the 8th fastest
time in practice. A disorganized group in group qualifying had Praytor rolling
off a disappointing 23rd.

With the drop
of the green flag the Moose and spotter Tab Boyd, on loan from Joey Logano,
quickly worked their DK-LOK Ford from 23rd up to 12th.

A caution on
lap 20 gave the team its first big decision of the day, come in or stay out. The
fuel calculations said the team would have to come in again if they brought the
DK-LOK Ford to pit road and the team decided to keep Praytor on the track.

The decision
moved the Moose up to 3rd behind the 78 and 98 of Mason Mitchell
Motorsports. Back under green the trio was joined by Matt Tift’s, Kyle Busch
Motorsports machine and the four cars quickly broke away from the field. (Pic
above)

The four cars
spent the next 30 laps nose to tail pacing the field until a timely caution flag
on lap 50 let the DK-LOK Ford come to pit road for badly needed fuel.

With just a few
cars using the same fuel strategy the team decided to pack the Ford full of fuel
versus just enough to get them to the end of the race. The weight of the extra
fuel would help pull the rear spoiler down out of the air giving the team and
extra advantage back on the track.

Back under
green Praytor had to be patient for the strategy to play out, the other cars
would have to pit again before the end of the race moving the Moose, 78, 98 and
18 back to the front.

On lap 65 the
DK-LOK Ford was drafting in the outside lane and the inside lane had a bump
draft go wrong sending the 15 of Lelani Munter into the Moose’s left side door
and the DK-LOK spinning and bouncing off other cars in to the infield grass in
a plume of smoke, dirt and flying grass.

Praytor’s DK-LOK
Ford was battered and bruised but it wouldn’t fire up, getting the Ford a ride
back to the garage on a wrecker and the Moose a trip to the infield care center.

The team
quickly went to work on the machine and had it ready to return to action but
didn’t have a driver. Praytor’s CO2 levels were too high in the infield care
center and they had him held up until those levels returned to normal.

Ed Pompa was
involved in the same wreck but his Clemson car was done and the team recruited
Pompa to finish the race. Pompa strapped in and just as the car was ready to
return to the race the final caution flag flew and the race was called after a
long red flag period ending this year’s Daytona race early.

“Our DK-LOK
Team had a solid Speedweek in Daytona. We had speed all weekend and we showed we
can run up front and compete with the biggest teams in the sport,” said Praytor.
“We can’t do what we do without all the people in Mobile who support our race
team. We had a record number of tire sponsors for Daytona this year, just
incredible. Our all-volunteer UNOH crew had a good week and did a great job on
our stop and getting our Ford patched back up to go back out. I appreciate Ed
Pompa climbing in for me. Congratulations to our spotter Tab Boyd, he and Joey
Logano won the Clash on Sunday, he does an awesome job. We have some work to do
before Talladega but we’re really looking forward to putting on a show in front
of our home state fans.”

Next up,
Nashville on April 8th.

MAVTV Signs ARCA Racing Series to Multi-Year Broadcast Agreement

The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and MAVTV announced a new
multi-year broadcast rights agreement for the ARCA Racing Series presented by
Menards under which racing events will be televised on MAVTV during the 2017
through 2019 racing seasons.

Ten races will be telecast on MAVTV in 2017, with ten races having already been
announced for broadcast on Fox Sports 1. The pairing of MAVTV and Fox will put
all Twenty ARCA races on National Television in 2017.

“MAVTV is working hard to become the home for motorsports and I think they will
make a great outlet for ARCA Racing,” said Thomas “Moose” Praytor. “The
combination of Fox and MAVTV means our fans will get to see every heart pounding
lap from places like Salem, Winchester and Elko plus the speed of Pocono,
Chicago and Talladega.”

The first of the three-year agreement, coverage begins Saturday night, April 8
with the first Live broadcast from Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee.
In addition to Nashville, races from Elko Speedway in Elko, Minn., Madison
International Speedway in Wis. and the Illinois State Fairgrounds will also air
Live on MAVTV.

“MAVTV continues its long-term commitment to motorsports,” said Bob Patison,
president of MAVTV. “We see the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards as a
premier property on our network, and are happy to begin our ARCA relationship
with this new contract.”

In addition to the Live events, MAVTV will provide coverage from an additional 6
ARCA Racing Series events, including delayed broadcast coverage from the 4-mile
Road America road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis., plus great short track action
from Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, Winchester Speedway in Ind., the dirt mile
at DuQuoin Fairgrounds in Southern Ill. and both Salem Speedway events in Ind.

“ARCA has a well-established history of investing in long-term relationships,
and that certainly holds true in the case of our television network
partnerships,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “We’re very pleased that MAVTV
will become a broadcast partner, and are proud to be a part of their programming
mix. As we build our plan for the future of the series, we’re especially
enthused to make this major, multi-year announcement. This mutual commitment
between ARCA and MAVTV provides our series a high quality television platform
available to deliver a tremendous value for viewers, race teams and sponsors.”

Race Day in Daytona

A new racing season begins today at
Daytona International Speedway for the Moose, Thomas Praytor and his Mobile
based DK-LOK Race team. Praytor rolls off 23rd after a disjointed
group qualifying effort left some of the best cars in the field in the middle of
the pack.

“We have a really fast race car and
qualifying yesterday went south from the time our group rolled off pit road. We
were all disjointed yesterday but today we will all be pressing to the front the
together,” said Praytor. “we have a huge amount of local support to start the
year and its part of why we have such great equipment here.”

The Max Force Race Team will begin its
20th year of competition starting behind 8 time Daytona Champion
Bobby Gerhardt.

“I’d like to be starting up front with
Mr. Bobby but we both know we have fast cars and we can work our way up there,
we’ll be pushing as hard as we can.”

Lucas Oil
Complete Engine Treatment 200 driven by General Tire gets underway Saturday
afternoon at 3:00 PM CST with live coverage on Fox Sports 1 and live timing and
scoring on ArcaRacing.com. The team will live tweet and facebook all day from
dklockracing-join the conversation!

Praytor Rumbles to Eighth at Daytona Practice

Coming off a
career season in 2016 Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his DK-LOK team fired the first
shot of the 2017 season posting an 8th place spot in practice for the
Lucas Oil Complete Engine Treatment 200 driven by General Tire at Daytona during
Thursdays practice.

“Solid day
for our team, lot of energy has gone in to this effort and our DK-LOK Ford
really performed well in the draft,” said Praytor. “Having Tab (Boyd) on the
roof again is awesome, his experience is incredible. We’ll see what we can get
today in qualifying.”

Eighth on the
speed chart put the Mobile, Alabama race team in good company working towards
Saturday’s season opener. Team Venturini, last year’s Championship team, Kyle
Bush team and 8 time Daytona Champion Bobby Gerhardt were the only teams to
record a faster time at the World Center of Speed.

The team is
so confident in their DK-LOK Ford they skipped the morning practice to prepare
for this afternoons qualifying session. Menards Group Pole Qualifying is at
2:30CST with live timing and scoring on ArcaRacing.com.

The 2017
season will get underway Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM CST with live coverage on
Fox Sports 1 and live timing and scoring on ArcaRacing.com.

Sponsor-GoodBookey Featured in Forbes

GoodBookey
America’s online charitable gaming site and sponsor of the Thomas “Moose”
Praytor’s ARCA car is featured in Forbes. Follow link below for full article:

“Congratulations to the entire GoodBookey team on being recognized by Forbes. We
had a lot of fun with GoodBookey and The Chive Charites on the car in Kentucky
and Kansas,” said Praytor. “They are making a difference in a fun way that
everyone can be involved with. I’m taking all bets against the Patriots,
download the app and put your money up!”

Team Praytor Starts 20th Season With Testing At Daytona

After a mad scramble for a test motor,
Thomas “Moose” Praytor and his Mobile based Max Force Race team spent some long
days with sleepless nights preparing their DK-LOK Ford for testing in Daytona.

“We got back late Sunday night with
the motor and went to work on installing first thing Monday morning. We felt
like we had until Thursday night at 9 to finish in order to make testing at 7AM
on Friday, we closed the door on the hauler at 7:30,” said Praytor. “We had lots
of great help and couldn’t have done it without, Dink (Stevens), Mark
(Hutchinson), Brandon (Stokes), my Mom, my Sister everybody pitched in.”

While all Ilmor Motors are all made
the same way they are not wired or plumbed the same way and all the hook ups in
the car had to be changed out to match the motor. “Tony (Blanchard) was a big
help, we took a lot of pics and texted back and forth, he really kept us on the
right path.”

A long nights drive across the
panhandle of Florida to Daytona Beach and hauler arrived in time for an hours
sleep before registration opened.

With the DK-LOK Ford finally in the
garage, a team of Ilmor engineers started to go over the motor. “The Ilmor guys
did a great job all weekend. They were constantly going over the motor after
each run.”

The team battled the usual gremlins on
the first few runs, tire rub, leaking oil line and after a couple of single car
runs the Moose was turned lose, ready to draft.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and money
on this chassis and it really shows it in the draft. Our DK-LOK Ford didn’t miss
a beat from Talladega and it was really fun to drive.”

After a couple of draft packs, Praytor
parked his Ford for the afternoon and the team prepared for a complete tech on
Saturday morning. The DK-LOK Ford timed in at 185.770 MPH good enough to be 23rd
out of 62 competitors.

Testing in Daytona allows the teams to
have the cars teched by ARCA officials to make sure their car and components are
ready to go when they return in February for the Lucas Oil Complete Treatment
200 driven by General Tire.

The team spent Saturday morning taking
the car apart for tech, putting it back together followed by Praytor made a
leisurely stroll around the 2.5 mile World Center of Speed at 180 MPH to make
sure it was all back together properly.

“We actually loaded up early which is
truly unusual for our race team. Our UNOH guys had a great weekend, the car
performed like we wanted and can’t say enough about the guys from Ilmor they
really worked hard to get all we could get out of the motor and it paid off.”

The countdown for the start of the
2017 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards season in now underway for the
Lucas Oil Complete Treatment 200 driven by General Tire on February 18th.

Sarah Cornett-Ching Saves Moose Again

As the days tick down to the test in
Daytona for the Lucas Oil Complete Treatment 200 driven by General Tire, Thomas
“Moose” Praytor found himself without his primary motor and it looked like he
could be watching the test from Mobile.

Enter Sarah Cornett-Ching with her
Dickies Race 101 Team and just like Pocono a couple of years ago, Sarah came to
the rescue loaning Praytor a motor for the test.

“We were cutting it pretty close with
our primary engine not being ready but Sarah, Tony and the guys at Race 101
saved us again,” said Praytor. “It’s one of the cool things about our Series,
having competitors helping each other.”

With the snow melting away Praytor
made a quick trip to the Race 101 Shop in Denver, North Carolina picked up a
motor and the team is hustling to get it installed and ready for the test this
weekend.

“Our teams have always been close
going back to when we were working out of the same team. Thomas and his guys
have always been there to help us when we need it and it was great to be able to
help him,” said Sarah Cornett-Ching.

Testing for the Lucas Oil Complete
Treatment 200 driven by General Tire is slated for Friday and Saturday at the
World Center of Speed, Daytona International Speedway. Live timing and scoring
will be available at arcaracing.com.